Forever Rules : Book One
by Joanne W
Summary: Just as Buffy and Xander start a new chapter in their lives, issues from the past arise that threaten to put an end to everything. (Sequel to 'Aspects of Love', Mirror Mirror' & 'Breaking the Rules')
1. Part One

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Forever Rules : Book One

Part One

Written by: Joanne W

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Summary: Just as Buffy and Xander start a new chapter in their lives, issues from the past arise that threaten to put an end to everything.  
**Sequel to:** 'Aspects of Love', 'Mirror Mirror' and 'Breaking the Rules' (All to be found at FFnet)  
**Rating:** **R** for violence, language and sexual situations.  
**Disclaimer:** Anything or anyone you know to be from Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon and all his little friends. Anything or anyone else that I've blatantly made up belongs to me.   
**Author's Notes:** (1). This fic starts eighteen months after 'Aspects of Love' ended and continues with the AU from the previous stories 'Mirror Mirror' and 'Breaking the Rules' which started in Season 4 - set after 'The Initiative' but before 'Pangs'. 'Fear Itself' never happened. (2). And, although BtVS in my little world went off at a tangent, 'Angel' on the other hand stayed pretty much the same, except no one went to Pylea (so no Fred) and they're pretty much carrying on as they were during Season 2. (3). Also notes for British spelling, *'s indicate word emphasis and //'s indicate direct character thoughts.

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(Some time between 11pm and 12am on the 12th July 2002)

"For Goddesses sake," Willow scolded as she batted away Xander's hand. "Stop fidgeting."

"It's too tight," Xander complained, his hand reaching up again to join Willow's as she was adjusting his collar. "I want to be able to breathe."

"You seem to be managing to speak well enough."

Xander gave Willow a withering look. "Y'know, I'm having second thoughts about asking *you* to do this."

Willow just grinned back at him. She batted his hand away again, finally loosening his collar a just little and then straightening his tie. "There," she said, brushing non-existent lint off his shoulders. "Perfect."

"Really?" Xander looked at her apprehensively. "I don't look like an idiot?"

Willow laid a hand gently on his shoulder. "Xander, you look fine." She reached up and brushed away some of his hair that fell across his forehead. Willow took a step back and admired the dark-haired young man in bare feet infront of her. Xander wore a dark charcoal grey suit over a midnight blue shirt and a tie and he wore a cream carnation in his breast pocket. Willow smiled warmly. "Very handsome."

Xander shifted awkwardly and then smiled back at Willow. "Well… you don't look so bad yourself."

Willow was wearing a long red gown, the top half was a satin bodice decorated liberally with red sequins and the bottom half was plain satin that flared out a little at the waist and just brushed the ground around her bare feet. Her hair was piled up on her head in a mass of loose curls with a few tendrils escaping deliberately.

Xander took one of her hands and brought it to his lips, gently kissing the back of it. "You look beautiful."

Willow smiled and put her other hand to her chest. "Why Xander," she said in a Texan drawl, fluttering her eyelashes. "Whatever would your intended say?"

"She'd probably tell me to stop flirting with the best man," Xander grinned. He let go of Willow's hand and looped his arm through hers instead as they made their way outside, heading towards the near beach. "And I bet not every groom gets that said to him."

"I feel a little weird being the best man…woman or whatever" Willow glanced sideways at him as the walked. "Do you really think I can do it?"

"My Willow can do anything," Xander replied, smiling reassuringly at her.

"Sweet talker," Willow grinned. "Y'know, I've been thinking about my speech at the reception." She grinned when Xander gave her a dubious look. "I've thought of some really *interesting* stories to tell…"

Xander didn't like the teasing tone that her last sentence was laced with. "Uh, interesting how?" he asked hesitantly, stopping and turning to face her.

Willow stopped too and looked back at him innocently. "I'm sure Buffy would *love* to hear about the time when we were seven and we went skinny dipping and you-"

"OhmyGoddon'tyouevendare," Xander stopped her mid-flow. "You wouldn't…"

"La la la-la la," Willow began to sing. "I can't hear you." She began to walk away. "Just going in one ear and out the other. La-la la."

Xander started after her but Willow sidestepped him and he fell on his butt. Willow laughed, but it turned to a shriek when Xander pulled her down in the sand beside him. 

"OK, OK" Willow laughed, "I won't say. Promise." She smiled at Xander before looking down at herself. "Oh no, this is ruining my dress."

Xander got to his feet. "S'your own fault," he grinned as he offered his hand to her.

Willow stuck her tongue out at him as he helped her to her feet. She brushed sand from the bottom of her dress, twisting around to see if she'd got it all. It seemed fine. "How's your suit?" she asked.

Xander was brushing himself down too. "Good as new." He took her arm again. "C'mon. Tara's probably wondering where we are."

-------------------

Tara sat on a blanket on the sand, surveying all that was around her. //It really does look beautiful//. She looked up at the night sky that was cloudless and twinkling with thousands of stars. //Just how Buffy wanted it//.

They were using a private beach out front of an exclusive ocean front hotel. Tara sat on a small dune just by the deck that led from the hotel to the beach and that overlooked the area that was going to be used for the main part of the ceremony. The biggest structure was an altar that stood underneath a pergola, which had pink roses running over it. In fact that was the only structure. In front of the altar was an area about four metres square from which ran an aisle about three metres in width and was outlined by lit candles that floated in small bowls of water. For seats Buffy had made a small compromise and there were actual chairs instead of just blankets. Around the edge of the whole area were small groups of candles around vases of beautifully arranged flowers and to give even more light, Giles had provided some ornate oil burning garden lamps.

Buffy and Joyce were inside the hotel, occupying rooms that had been put aside for the pre-wedding preparations. Willow was with Xander and Giles and Ren were running some last minute errands. Tara had just finished putting the last touches to the flowers so now she was left to her own devices.

Tara sat savouring the moment for a little while longer and then she heard voices coming from behind her. She saw Willow and Xander making their way up the small dune towards her. Xander's trouser legs were turned up so they didn't brush along the sand as his feet sank into it. Willow followed up behind him, putting her own bare feet in the impressions Xander's left and she had hitched up her dress to her knees, lifting it off the sand.

Tara smiled warmly at them both as they closed the distance between her and themselves. "You two both look fabulous," she smiled warmly.

"You're looking pretty fabulous yourself Tara," Xander said, taking in Tara's turquoise gown, similar in style to Willow's, only Tara had a cream chiffon scarf draped over her shoulders and covering most of her upper chest. Tara wore her hair down, parted in the middle with one side held just back off her face with a diamante studded barrette.

Tara blushed and ducked her head briefly until she felt most of the redness had gone. She looked back at them both as they stood looking over the prepared-for-wedding beach infront of them. "Have Ren and Giles got back yet?" Tara asked, scooting over on the blanket she was sitting on.

"Haven't seen them," Xander replied, sitting down in the space Tara had vacated. "But they've got a little while yet anyway." Xander turned his gaze to what lay before him. "It all looks beautiful Tara." he said. "You and Willow did a great job"

Tara blushed again. "We just went with what Buffy wanted."

Willow smiled at Xander. "Although I found out some of it was your idea."

Xander smiled sheepishly back then looked out at the beach again. Willow rolled her eyes and laughed softly when she saw Xander's eyes become a little more fixed and day dreamy on the scene laid out before him. She looked back to Tara and saw that her girlfriend had noticed the faraway look in his eyes too. 

Tara nodded her back towards the hotel. Willow smiled and nodded in agreement. Willow got up, placing a hand gently on Xander's shoulder as she did so. 

Xander glanced at her and Willow smiled. "Just thought we'd give you a little alone time" she said, "Tara and I probably need to check in with Buffy and her mom anyway."

"And we can talk about you behind your back," Tara added.

Xander rolled his eyes and smiled at them both. "Go on go." He waved them off playfully. "Leave me to get all sappy and retrospective."

Willow laughed as she ruffled his hair and joined Tara, both women hitching up their skirts as they began the short trek down back towards the hotel.

-------------------

"Oh my God," Joyce remarked breathlessly. She'd just left the room to go to the bathroom and had just returned to find that Buffy had finally changed into her dress. "Buffy you look beautiful."

Buffy beamed and unconsciously smoothed down the skirt of her gown. "D'ya think Xander will like it?"

"I think he'll fall at your feet sweetheart," Joyce smiled. She gazed at her daughter happily. "Oh my, you really do look amazing."

Buffy adjusted the bodice of her gown. "I feel amazing. I can't believe…" Buffy trailed off, feeling tears well up. "Mom," she sniffed "I'm getting married."

"I know sweetie." Joyce pulled her daughter into a hug. "My baby girl. It's so good I know I'm not losing my you."

"You aren't?"

"No, I'm just gaining a Xander."

Buffy laughed and broke away gently from her mother's embrace. "Would you want anyone else?"

"Heavens no," Joyce chuckled. She grabbed a tissue from a box on a nearby table. "Here." She handed it to Buffy just as there was a knock at the door. "Come in unless you're the groom" Joyce called out.

Buffy wiped the few tears from her eyes. "I just can't believe that we haven't had any prob-"

"Don't say it!" Willow exclaimed, hearing Buffy's words the moment she entered the room with Tara. "Don't you *dare* say anything jinxy."

Joyce rolled her eyes. "Willow, I don't think-"

"No jinxing!" Willow repeated. "Doesn't anybody know the rules?"

Tara laid a hand on her girlfriend's shoulder. "Willow, did you have coffee?"

"I just had one," Willow admitted, making forgive-me eyes at Tara. "A little tiny espresso."

"Is this a dig at me having my wedding at midnight?" Buffy teased.

"Totally," Willow replied, grinning. "And can I just say that you look wonderful?" 

"Completely," Tara agreed, nodding. "Xander's gonna be-" she smiled, "Even more in love with you."

Buffy blushed a little. "Thanks. So? Where did you leave him?"

Willow grinned. "Oh, getting all gooey eyed outside."

"Actually I think he said sappy and retrospective," Tara smiled.

"Mmm," Buffy sighed happily, "He always looks cute like that."

"Buffy sweetie," Joyce said, "You always think he looks cute. Even in that blue shirt with unidentifiable animals on it. But can we think about getting you ready, hmm?"

Tara looked at her watch. "Oh wow, there's only, like, ten minutes before guests start getting here."

"Ten minutes?" Buffy sounded anxious as she let Joyce usher her into a chair. "But Giles isn't even back yet."

"He'll *be* here Buffy." Joyce placed her hands on Buffy's shoulders and gently turned her around so she was facing the mirror. She met Buffy's reflected gaze. "Unlike your shiftless father," Joyce added tersely. She picked a up hair brush and began brushing through the ends of Buffy's hair. "I don't see-" 

"Mom, can we not talk about dad, OK?" Buffy pleaded. "I just want to think happy thoughts. Happy day remember?"

Joyce sighed and smiled apologetically at her daughter. "I'm sorry sweetie. Guess I'll always be a little irked that's all. Anyway, I know Rupert will do a wonderful job."

"Why don't I go and look for Mr Giles and Ren?" Tara suggested.

"Yeah, and I can stay here and help with the bride's getting ready." Willow added. "Or just get under everyone's feet until my coffee high fades."

"That sounds like a good idea girls. And you're fine here Willow," Joyce replied. "Tara, if you do see any guests here early, can you sort them out?"

"Sure Mrs Summers." Tara smiled and gave Willow a quick peck on the cheek before she left.

Joyce continued to brush through Buffy's long blonde hair as Willow pulled up a chair near Buffy and sat down. Buffy smiled at Willow's reflection and caught her friend's eye in the mirror. "Y'know you look great Will," Buffy said warmly.

Willow looked down at herself and then into the mirror at Buffy. "Pretty nifty for a best man, huh?"

Buffy chuckled. "Do I want to know where you're hiding the rings?"

Willow rolled her eyes and then grinned. She reached towards the top of her bodice and began fiddling for something just inside of it. Buffy raised an eyebrow and Joyce slowed in her brushing until they saw that Willow now had hold of a piece of red ribbon, the top end of which had been sewn to the bodice. Willow pulled up the ribbon from inside her bodice and the others saw that tied at the end were two gold bands.

"I figured I'd probably lose a purse," Willow explained. She held up the rings so she could look at them properly. "They're beautiful."

"I know," Buffy said softly. She exchanged a quiet smile with Willow. "It's all going to be beautiful."

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"OK, are you *sure* there's nothing else?" Ren asked Giles as she closed her car door and set the alarm.

"Um, no. I think that was the last…" Giles trailed off for a moment, looking thoughtful. "Yes, definitely the last of it."

Ren sighed thankfully. "Good." She grabbed the boxes she'd set on the roof of the car and began following after Giles as he headed towards the hotel. "We're late enough as it is." Ren glanced down at herself. "I don't think Xander and Buffy would appreciate me gracing their wedding in jeans and one of your shirts." She yawned. "At least you had the common sense to get changed first before we volunteered for the present run."

"Are you going to have enough time?" Giles stopped and faced her. He staggered a little, trying not to lose his hold of the stack of prettily wrapped boxes he carried, finally steadying them by jamming his chin on the top box. "And are you sure you can manage those?"

Ren blinked then looked down at the two shoebox-sized presents she carried and then back at Giles. "Rupert, I'm pregnant. That doesn't mean my muscles have suddenly atrophied." Ren then smiled. "Your face is doing a thing."

"My face is not doing a thing." Giles paused. "What thing?"

"You got this cute little dimple-" Ren managed to juggle her boxes in one arm as she reached across to touch a spot just above the left corner of Giles' mouth, "Right here," she smiled, "When I said…" Ren broke off and looked around then continued in a stage whisper, "When I said the P word."

"Oh, that thing." Giles smiled back at Ren. "Cute, you say?"

"Yup." Ren pushed his glasses back up his nose as they began to slide down. "Come on, I bet everyone's wondering where we are."

"Well if that is indeed Tara I see coming of the hotel lobby, then I'd say good bet."

"Hey guys!" Tara called out, waving at them. "You're cutting it fine aren't you?"

"But we're here and bearing gifts," Ren replied with a smile, heading over to the blonde witch. "How's everything going?"

"Well Buffy almost jinxed us a little while ago," Tara admitted, grinning. "But Willow put her straight."

"I should think so," Ren replied, grinning back. "After all the trouble it was to get this place."

"Yes, how convenient it was that Buffy was here to stop that Frevlor demon that was terrorising the place." Giles raised an eyebrow at both women.

Tara blinked innocently. "I thought it was really nice of the owner to offer Buffy the place for the wedding for all her trouble."

Ren mirrored Tara's expression. "And for free," she added.

"Quite," Giles replied dryly. "Of course how the naturally peace loving Frevlor demon suddenly decided to go on a rampage…"

"Complete mystery," Ren finished, hiding her smirk.

Giles rolled his eyes and headed past both women into the hotel lobby. Ren and Tara turned to each other and grinned before following after Giles.

-------------------

Giles was thankful he'd deposited his cargo before he came back with Tara or he felt he would have been paying for a lot of damaged and broken presents having dropped them on the floor once he'd set eyes on Buffy.

"Oh my." Giles beamed and adjusted his glasses. "Buffy you look simply beautiful."

Buffy blushed. "Thanks," she said, smiling softly.

"And Giles…" Willow grinned, "Looking good too."

Giles glanced down at his suit; it was dark charcoal grey like Xander's except his tie and shirt were a deep burgundy. "You know," he looked up at grinned at everyone, "I think we should all admit we look pretty damn good"

Laughing, Willow grabbed Tara's hand. "Then as beautiful people, I think Tara and I should go and greet the guests."

"Where's Ren?" Buffy asked as the witches left.

"Getting changed," Giles replied. "Said she wouldn't be long."

"You know we're taking bets don't you?" Buffy said, smiling as she sat back down infront of the mirror.

"I'd heard a rumour." Giles sounded amused as he sat on the small couch in the corner of the room.

"So am I gonna win?" Buffy grinned at him.

"I think that all depends on who you bet on Buffy," Joyce remarked. "And sit properly or you'll crease."

"And who did you bet on Joyce?" Giles caught the older woman's eye.

Joyce chuckled. "Now that would be telling."

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Xander leant against the doorframe as he brushed the sand from his feet before he rolled his trousers back down. Dusting the sand from his hands, he ran one hand through his hair and took one last look outside.

This was truly the best day of his life. He was getting married. Better than that, he was getting married to Buffy Summers. The girl, now woman, who he'd fallen in love with at the tender age of sixteen, was going to stand with him at an altar and tell everyone that she wanted to be with him forever.

He'd be lying to himself if he said it hadn't been a struggle. The day he'd actually proposed to Buffy all of two years ago, had been a major event for more than one reason. It had also been the day that one woman, Tay, had decided to use Buffy and Xander as pawns in a game to get revenge on Ren. Xander had been hurt. Badly. His injuries meant that he'd ended up in a coma. When he'd woken up, he hadn't been, well, right. He'd taken his guilt for what had happened with Tay and had thrown it at the people he cared about, culminating in a breakdown that left him almost suicidal and sobbing out all his emotional confusion on the bathroom floor and then into Willow arms and then finally into Buffy's.

It took a while for everything to work out. It had taken some time for him to finally stop blaming himself. He'd attended counselling sessions to help him sort out his feelings for a while afterwards and Buffy had got him training with her to help with his aggression. Willow and Tara had helped him to concentrate his mind on other things, namely involving him in spells they incanted. Not the spells that he had hormone charged teenage fantasies about, but the kind that meant he could float a pencil with the best of them.

Xander smiled up at the night sky and the stars that shone down at him. But Xander wasn't struggling anymore. He hadn't been for a long while. No, things were good now.

He'd also gotten a job working construction and was earning good money and he and Buffy had moved out into their own place, it was small, but all they could afford as Buffy had gone back to college, only supplementing their income when she helped out Giles in the Magic box at the weekend. But it was *their* home.

Xander turned inside and sighed softly as he walked along the deserted corridors. He caught his reflection in a mirrored wall panel and stopped. Xander began to study himself in the mirror. //So this is what soon-to-be-married guy looks like?//. 

And, he admitted to himself, he made a pretty good groom. His hair was shorter than it had been for a while, but still long enough for Buffy to tangle her fingers into, which was her request. He was healthier than he'd ever been due to Buffy's rigorous training schedule and his body had filled out with muscles, which Buffy also seemed to like.

Xander straightened his tie and then smoothed down his the jacket of his suit. Then he felt a draft of cold air waft over his toes. He looked down "I guess shoes would be good."

"These?"

Xander turned to see Ren standing two feet away holding a pair of black shoes in one hand and a pair of black socks in the other. 

"Ren you look stunning." Xander grinned as he took the proffered items her.

Ren glanced at her reflection in the mirror. "I think my hair clashes with the dress." She shook out her mane of ruby red hair and smoothed down the skirt of the turquoise gown she wore that was identical to Tara's. Ren looked down at Xander as he had sat on the floor to put on his shoes and socks. "And I thought you might like to know that your parents are here."

"Where are they now?" Xander asked, getting up. "Or do I just take a wild guess and say 'free bar'?"

"Your dad, yeah. But Tara's keeping an eye on him. Your mum's upstairs with Buffy and Joyce and would you stop fiddling with your bloody tie?" Ren swatted his hands away from his neck. "You look gorgeous, OK?" Then she smiled, "But then, of course, Rupert has the exact same suit…"

"Yeah yeah" Xander rolled his eyes.

"So…?" Ren glanced across at him as they began to walk side by side, "Who'd you bet on?"

Xander pretended to look confused, but then gave in. "Am I getting insider information here?" he grinned.

Ren grinned back. "Oh no," she gave a slight shake of her head. "And anyway, even if there was anything to say, Rupert and I wouldn't want to steal your limelight." Ren nudged him gently with her elbow. "It's *your* day, OK?"

"Uh huh." There was a knowing tone to Xander's voice. "So, you're telling me," he continued, "That you two haven't even talked about it?"

Ren just grinned and then turned away from him as she continued to walk with him.

After a few moments, realising that Ren wasn't going to say anymore, Xander sighed in defeat and offered his arm to her. "Come on. Escort me to my guests?" Xander smiled when Ren looped her arm through his. "Or any Frevlor demons that might be on the loose…"

Ren snickered. "His name is Max. And he only cost a hundred bucks and a bag of jelly babies. He wished you luck by the way."

"Cool." Xander paused. "Did he get us a present?"

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(A short while later)

"*Xander*" Willow murmured out of the corner of her mouth, "I can *feel* you shaking and I'm not even touching you."

Xander glanced at Willow as she sat beside him just infront of the altar. "But not nervous shaking," he assured her. "Happy shaking. If I'm not careful, I think I might explode with sheer joy."

"Nice Xan. Are you gonna need a tissue for that?" Willow grinned as Xander gave her a pained look. "Seriously though," she continued, taking his hand that was nearest to her, "Glad it's not nervous shaking."

"Got nothing to be nervous about," Xander replied, smiling easily and he squeezed Willow's hand. He glanced around quickly at the congregation, momentarily catching Joyce's eye and returned her smile. Xander looked back to Willow. "You think your little 'awake' spell is gonna hold through the reception? I don't want anyone falling asleep in their hors d'oeuvres."

Willow looked a little indignant. "Of course it will." If she could have tossed her hair over her shoulder she would have. "I am Willow the Wonder Wicca," now there was a trace of a smile on her lips, "You doubt my powers?"

"Never Willow." Xander smiled back. "Never."

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"Are you ready to go?" Giles stood behind Buffy as she looked at herself in the mirror.

Buffy caught his eye in the reflection. "Yeah," she said softly, smiling. "Just taking one last moment to look at Buffy Summers."

Giles smiled and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Somehow how I don't think Buffy Harris is going to be all that different."

"No?"

Giles shook his head gently. "I have it on good authority."

Buffy grinned a little. "Not gonna reveal you sources huh?"

"Certainly not." Giles pretended to look affronted. "Come on," he then said with a smile, offering her his arm. "Your groom is waiting."

"My groom," Buffy sighed dreamily and Giles rolled his eyes but smiled. Buffy sighed again and looped her arm through his. "Giles?" she said as they began to head out.

"Hmm?" Giles glanced down at her. Meeting her eyes, he was a little surprised at the seriousness behind them. "What?"

Buffy smiled. "Thanks. It means a lot that you're doing this for me, for us both."

Giles gave her an embarrassed smile and pushed his glasses back up his nose as he cleared his throat. "It's my pleasure."

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"You know I-I don't think I should be the one with butterflies," Tara remarked, turning to Ren who stood beside her, both of them waiting for Giles and Buffy by the doors that led outside. "My stomach's all flip-floppy."

"Tara, what have you got to be nervous about?" Ren reasoned. "Come to think of it, I should be the one that feels weird," Ren continued, "Y'know, seeing as how I've licked chocolate off the stomach of the Groom."

Tara blinked at Ren, then said after a moment, "Dark, milk or white?"

"Milk."

"Well, it's really the only way to go."

"Hey guys," another female voice called out.

Both Tara and Ren turned to see Buffy and Giles heading towards them, Buffy beaming happily on Giles' arm. "You ready?" the blonde Slayer asked brightly.

"If you are," Ren replied. "You look gorgeous."

"Thanks," Buffy smiled.

"I was talking to Rupert."

Buffy rolled her eyes as Ren blew Giles a kiss. "Oh for…" Buffy groaned and started to head out of the door, tugging Giles along with her. "I wanna get married already."

-------------------

"Hey, I think we're on," Willow whispered softly in Xander's ear as she peered over his shoulder.

"We are?" Xander turned his head, trying to see through the guests. "Really?"

Willow chuckled. "A little more nervous now are we?" Willow placed a hand on his arm and then kissed him on the cheek. "Good luck."

Xander turned back to her and smiled. "Thanks," he said, standing as the music began to play. He took a couple of deep breaths before he turned to look around again, but everyone else had stood too, so all Xander could see was the top of Giles' head. Xander took a step towards the altar and then suddenly found himself dumbstruck when he finally saw Buffy.

Buffy was beautiful; she looked like the most perfect bride he'd ever seen in his life. She wore a long white gown, similar in style to Willow, Tara and Ren's. A white, Jacquard weave bodice fed down into long, white skirts of satin that trailed along behind her up the aisle. Buffy wore a thin, white satin choker around her neck with a small diamond cross hanging from it. Her long hair fell over her shoulders and down her back and woven into her blonde locks were a few small pink flowers.

"Oh my God," Xander murmured under his breath when he finally found his voice. He stared at Buffy, as she seemed to glide towards him, bathed in the light from the candles that lines the aisle. "I'm in heaven."

Buffy smiled shyly at him as she caught him staring, but kept her gaze locked with his as she made her way towards him. "Love you," she mouthed silently.

"Love you too," Xander mouthed back as she finally joined him.

As Giles, Tara and Ren tailed off to the side, and once the guests had re-seated themselves, the Minister started to speak.

"We are gathered here tonight," he began, "To witness the joining in marriage between these two persons stood here before us; Alexander Lavelle Harris and Buffy Anne Summers."

-------------------

As the Minister continued to speak, Willow found it hard to focus on anything but her two friends standing in front of the altar. The love and happiness that emanated from the both of them was overwhelming.

For a brief moment she managed to catch her girlfriend's eye as she stood on the opposite side of the happy couple and Tara smiled back. Willow quickly blew a kiss at the blonde witch and a blush to match Ren's hair crept up from Tara's neck, but there was a wide smile to accompany it.

-------------------

Buffy felt like she was flying; everything around her was so unbelievably perfect. The man she loved was currently standing right beside her and pledging his life to her and to her only. Forever.

Buffy glanced across at Xander. Catching his eye, they exchanged smiles as the Minister began speaking to Buffy.

"… do you take this man, Alexander Lavelle Harris, to be your lawful wedded husband?"

Buffy smiled and cast yet another look at Xander. "I do."

-------------------

Willow handed the rings over to the Minister when he asked for them, drawing a few raised eyebrows from those people who saw where she had produced them from.

After a few words from the Minister, Xander took one of the rings and then Buffy's left hand before reciting the words they'd both practised over the past weeks. Xander took a deep breath and looked deep into Buffy's eyes as she stood facing him.

"I, Alexander Lavelle Harris, take thee, Buffy Anne Summers, to be my lawful wedded wife. To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, and I promise my love to you for as long as we both shall live." Xander looked down briefly to see to place the ring on to Buffy's finger and gently pushed it all the way to the base. He looked back up to her and smiled. "I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow, and with all that I am, and all that I have."

"Buffy Anne Summers," he continued, "You mean more to me than anything else in this world. You're my heart, my soul, my every fibre of being." Xander gently brushed his thumb over the back of Buffy hand. "You're my saviour, the one who rescued me. I promise that I will never forget that and that I'll show you everyday of my life just how much I love you. I promise that I will do everything in my power to be the husband that you deserve."

Buffy blinked back tears and she could have sworn that Xander was doing the same. Buffy flashed him a loving smile before she took the other ring and placed it on the tip of Xander's finger. "I, Buffy Anne Summers, take thee, Alexander Lavelle Harris to be my husband. To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, and I promise my love to you for as long as we both shall live."

Buffy blinked back another tear. "I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow, and with all that I am, and all that I have." She pushed it the entire length before she looked up into his eyes, holding his gaze for a moment before continuing. "I love you Xander Harris and I want to be with you for the rest of my life. You've always been there for me, always by my side no matter what has been happening. I don't think I could live without your smile. You're my everything too," she added softly. "And I'll rescue you when ever you want," Buffy smiled, "So long as you promise to stay being my White Knight too."

"I promise," Xander whispered reverently.

The Minister smiled at the couple as they continued to be enthralled by each other. He coughed quietly and drew their attention. "Now that Alexander and Buffy have given themselves to each other by solemn vows," he recited, "With the joining of hands and the giving and receiving of a ring," he exchanged a look with the couple. "I now pronounce that they are husband and wife."

Both Buffy and Xander turned to each other; stupid, happy grins on both their faces, and although they heard the Minister speaking the words, not one of them needed any instruction as their arms found themselves around each other and lips locked together.

Both Buffy and Xander were aware of clapping as they embraced, but they were both too wrapped in each other for the moment and when Xander dipped Buffy as they kissed; there were catcalls from the congregation.

Buffy giggled when they drew apart a moment later and they both gave everyone embarrassed smiles. Buffy caught her mother's eye and just gave her the stupid grin that she just knew she was going to be wearing for the rest of the celebration. Then Buffy looked back at Xander, who still had his arms wrapped loosely around her. //Make that a smile for the rest of my life//.

Xander grinned back at her. "Guess you finally answered the first question I asked you."

Buffy settled her hands on his waist. "Oh yeah, you have me Xander Harris," she said softly. "You have me for good."

-------------------

A little over an hour later, the two witches stood at the edge of the dance floor in the ballroom where the reception was being held. There were tables all around the edges of the room, leaving a dance floor in the middle. The head table was at the centre back of the room infront of the large windows that stood floor to ceiling and looked out towards the beach. All the speeches had been made and most of the food had been eaten; now everyone was either chatting, dancing or enjoying themselves in their own way.

"Look at those two," Tara said quietly as Willow wrapped her arms around her from behind.

Willow rested her chin on her girlfriend's shoulder as she saw where Tara was looking. "If those two get any cuter," the red head said as she watched Buffy feed Xander something with her fingers as the happy couple sat at the head table, "I may hurl all the nice food I've just eaten."

"Eww." Tara giggled and gently nudged her girlfriend away. "Not over me you aren't."

"I said if they get any cuter!" Willow laughed, turning the blonde witch around and draping her arms over her shoulders.

"Yeah and knowing them, they will," Tara shot back, grinning as she wrapped her arms around Willow's waist.

"In that case, I guess we'll just have to do as they do." Willow grinned before pulling her girlfriend closer for a kiss.

-------------------

Buffy giggled as she let Xander lick the traces of frosting off her fingers. "You're a messy eater, y'know that?" 

"Mmm, I know..." Xander replied as he cupped one side of Buffy's face before darting in and kissing her full on the lips.

//Oh and there's still frosting// Buffy realised as she kept her lips against his as she moved from her seat and into his lap, draping one arm over his shoulder and resting the other against his chest.

Xander moaned softly in appreciation as Buffy began to kiss him back harder. He slipped an arm around her waist and ran the other down her side, finally resting his hand on her thigh.

"Oh please," another voice then interrupted them. "Can't you two save it for the honeymoon?"

Buffy pulled back from Xander to see Cordelia standing behind them. She blinked in surprise. "Cordy? I thought you couldn't make it."

"Huge emergency not so huge?" Xander asked as Buffy got up from his lap and hugged the brunette woman. Which didn't seem so weird as it once would have, but over the last year there'd been exchanges of help on occasion between the Sunnydale and LA crew and everyone was on good terms. Well, Angel and Xander weren't glaring at each other as much as they used to so everybody took it as good.

"Nope," Cordelia replied. "Just a couple of vamps with a Pinky and the Brain 'tude. Angel and the guys are dealing. They wished good luck." She looked between the two of them and sighed a little wistfully. "Look at you two," Cordelia sighed again. "I wish I could have made it for the ceremony. You two look great." There was a hint of genuine smile before something flashed in Cordelia's eyes. "Not sure about the flowers myself Buffy, but still, kitsch enough to work for you. And Xander, very nice. Finally you had someone dress you."

"And yet you couldn't find time to get changed yourself," Buffy replied, still smiling and not wasting a second as she gave Cordelia's, obviously new, outfit a once over.

Cordelia conceded the point. "Just be lucky it's late." Cordelia glared half-heartedly at them, before her face broke out into a big smile. "Is there still food left?"

"I'm sure there's something around," Xander replied, shaking his head as Cordelia headed off. He grinned at Buffy. "Nice shot honey."

"I think she's still up by three though," Buffy replied, pouting a little. She brushed her fingers through his hair before they traced a line down the side of his face down to his lips. "Wanna dance again?"

Xander smiled and took her hand, kissing her fingertips. "Come on then." He stood up and led her out onto the dancefloor. The music was slightly upbeat but it didn't stop Buffy laying her head against Xander's chest as they danced slowly to the music. 

"Buff?" Xander uttered softly after a little while, reaching up to toy with a lock of her hair. Buffy looked up at him a silently urged him to continue with a look and a smile. Xander kissed her softly on the forehead. "I meant what I said," he continued, looking back into her eyes. "You're everything to me."

"I know." Buffy cupped his face with both her hands. "It's one of the reasons I married you." She smiled, looping her arms around his neck now as Xander settled his hands on her waist. "And I know you'll be a wonderful husband and I have no doubts that you'll be a wonderful father too."

"I see, is there something that you two aren't telling me?" a smiling Joyce asked as she appeared beside the happy couple.

"Sorry mom, no grandkids just yet," Buffy replied, smiling back at her mother.

"But let me guess," Joyce gave them both a knowing smile, "You plan on trying a lot, don't you?" Joyce managed to about half-stifle her laugh when she saw them both redden. "Sorry. Couldn't help it," she apologised, then she looked at Xander. "So, how about a dance with your mother-in-law?"

"Sure." Xander offered Joyce his hand as Buffy stepped away graciously. "I can't promise I won't stand on your toes though."

"I'm sure you'll do fine," Joyce replied, taking Xander's hand. "My daughter seems to think so anyway, so I'll just have to have faith in her."

Buffy smiled at her mother and Xander before she began to weave her way through the other dancing couples, exchanging a few words with people before reaching where Willow and Tara were standing.

Willow smiled happily as Buffy joined them. "Hey, look Tara," Willow turned to her girlfriend, "It's Mrs Harris come to see us."

"Well I can't spend the entire evening with my husband can I?" Buffy grinned. "I can try, but…" she trailed off and glanced to where Xander was dancing with her mother, "I got my whole life for that." Buffy looked back to the two witches. "And how come you aren't dancing, huh? I want people to dance."

"We have," Willow insisted. "You didn't see us because you had Xander attached to your face."

"Plus we both have blisters," Tara added. "We're people watching now."

"Ooh, have you seen Giles?" Buffy asked. "Or Ren for that matter."

"Uh, Giles is trapped in conversation with the other Mrs Harris," Willow replied, nodding her head to where Giles was stood in a corner with Xander's mother. "We're gonna give him another couple of minutes before we go rescue him."

"And I haven't seen Ren for a while," Tara said, shrugging.

"Oh, well, I'm sure she's somewhere," Buffy guessed. "I suppose I could go and help Giles. After all, she is my mother-in-law." Buffy paused. "I have a mother-in-law." She shook her head as in disbelief and the two witches laughed as Buffy headed off.

-------------------

Giles offered up a silent prayer of thanks as he tried not to hurry away to quickly from Rebecca Harris. It wasn't that she wasn't well meaning, it's just that once she got talking she wouldn't stop and everytime he tried to make his excuses, she'd grabbed hold of his arm and literally pulled him back into the conversation.

//Now if I can just find Ren…// Giles looked around the hall. Not spotting her immediately, he got his champagne glass filled en route as he started on his quest. Unfortunately he didn't get very far as another one of Xander's relatives grabbed hold of his arm.

"I see you talking to my wife," Mr Harris said gruffly. "What she say to you?"

Giles removed the other man's hand from his arm. "She was saying, at first anyway, about how nice the ceremony was and about how happy Xander and Buffy looked."

"Oh, yeah. Well I'm glad I didn't have to stump up to much for it." Mr Harris took another swig of his whiskey.

//You didn't stump up anything for it// Giles tried to keep the frown from his face. "You didn't think Xander looked happy?"

"Well I'd be happy if I had a looker like that." Mr Harris nudged Giles' arm and leered over at Buffy. "She's got an ass-"

"Mr Harris, I suggest you stop now before you find yourself hanging upside down by your ankles over the nearest balcony." Giles glared at the other man.

Mr Harris didn't seem to put off. "Like you can talk. I've seen you and that little firebird that hangs off your arm," he waved his glass in front of Giles. "She's gotta be half your age. What's your secret huh? Getting a chick like that?" Mr Harris laughed, unfazed by the cold glare Giles had aimed at him. "I betcha can't even keep up with her."

"I try." Giles said, trying to keep his tone even. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be off before I shove that glass of yours somewhere rather painful about your person." Giles shot the other man another dark look before walking away, feeling his fingernails digging into the palm of his hand as he made his way towards Willow and Tara.

Willow gave him a smile of sympathy. "What'd he say this time?"

"Just…" Giles trailed off and sighed. "It doesn't matter." He looked at the two witches, "Have you seen Ren?" Giles sighed when they both shook their heads. "Well, if you see her before I do, tell her I'm looking for her, would you?" Giles glanced back at Mr Harris briefly and frowned before heading away from the witches.

-------------------

"Mmm," Buffy sighed happily as she snuggled into Xander's embrace as they danced slowly to the music after managing to get him back from her mother. "I think I could easily stay like this forever."

"We'd probably miss our plane though." Xander softly kissed the top of her head. "But I think we can easily stretch to another half an hour."

"Good." Buffy sighed happily again. "Just don't let me go."

-------------------

"I was beginning to get worried about you."

Ren looked up at Giles as he came up behind her where she sat on the raised deck outside that led from the ballroom, her legs hanging over the edge of the decking, bare feet just barely touching the sand. "Sorry," she apologised, as Giles sat down beside her. "Guess I just lost track of time."

Giles took off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders when she shivered a little. "What's wrong?" he asked, brushing some of her hair back behind her ear.

"Nothing's wrong Rupert," Ren replied, smiling. She leant against him, a contented sigh escaping her lips when Giles put his arm around her. Ren reached across and took Giles' other arm and placed his hand over her lower stomach, resting her hand over his. "That's just it."

Giles closed his eyes and hugged Ren closer to him. "I still can't believe that we're going to be parents."

Ren took her hand off his and raised it so she cupped the side of his face. Giles opened his eyes to find himself looking into Ren's bright blue ones. She smiled and pressed her lips to his, kissing him softly. Giles closed his eyes again and kissed her back, bringing his hand up from her arm and tangling his fingers in her hair.

"We should be getting back inside," Ren said once they drew apart. "It's getting cold."

"Feel like dancing?" Giles murmured, stroking her hair.

Ren smiled. "Not just yet," she said and leant forward for another kiss.

-------------------

"What are you looking at?" Xander asked Buffy as she realised his bride was trying peer around him.

"I just want to see something." Buffy tried to see over his shoulder to where Ren and Giles had just walked back in from outside.

"Huh?" Xander turned his head to where Buffy was looking. "See what? Giles and Ren? Buff, what are you looking for?"

"A ring." Buffy looked back to him and grinned. "I wanna know if we're gonna be at their wedding soon."

"Can you see one?"

Buffy looked back to the other couple again as they walked onto the dance floor. She frowned. "No."

"Well, maybe one of them'll ask later," Xander reasoned, shrugging a little. "Come on, stop staring at them and tell me you love me."

Buffy looked back to Xander and saw him grinning at her. She rolled her eyes and grinned back. Standing on tiptoe she quickly kissed him on the lips and then looked into his eyes. "I love you Mr Harris."

"Well, thank you Mrs Harris." Xander kissed her again. "And I love you too, Buffy."

==========

__

tbc…


	2. Part Two

****

Forever Rules : Book One

Part Two

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

__

(Three days later)

Buffy sat on the large veranda of the villa they had for the duration of their honeymoon. It was located in a fairly deserted spot just over the border into Mexico, near enough to the coast for them to be able to drive to the beach if they wanted to.

Of course they hadn't because she and Xander had spent the last couple of days getting hot and sticky and having orgasms together in bed. And in the kitchen… the bathroom… the veranda… the roof… anywhere with a half metre square of flat surface and a good foothold…

Buffy sighed in contentment as she sat and watched the sun finally disappear over the horizon. "Y'know, this has seriously got to be the best wedding present ever," Buffy said, looking at Xander as he walked out onto the veranda. "And are you ever going to put on any clothes?"

"What's the point?" Xander sat down opposite Buffy, who herself wore only shorts and a bandeau top. Xander set the two glasses of water he carried down on the table between them. "You only rip them off again anyway."

"But I *like* ripping them off you," Buffy pouted. She got up and stalked over to him slowly, twirling a lock of hair between her fingers. "You wanna go put something on? I promise I'll be gentle."

"How 'bout-" Xander grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her onto his lap, "I just wear you?"

Buffy giggled. "I think I'd look pretty good on you, yeah." She snuggled into Xander's embrace, resting her head on his shoulder, as he wrapped his arms around her. Buffy sighed and looked out across the flat landscape. "You know, I really am glad Giles and Ren didn't get us a toaster. This is so much nicer."

"Plus the added bonus of no vampire activity." Xander brushed aside some of her hair away from her face and kissed a spot on her temple softly. "You missing the Slaying yet?"

"Not so much," Buffy replied, tilting her head up to Xander's, closing her eyes when he brushed his lips against hers softly. "Mmmm," Buffy hummed in pleasure when Xander ran a hand slowly up the inside of one of her thighs. "I can't believe we're only here for a week."

"I know," Xander kissed her again, harder this time. "The pressures of being the Chosen One huh?"

"I'll admit it's a strain…" Buffy rearranged herself on Xander's lap so she was straddling him, her arms hooked over the top of Xander's chair so she ended up face to face with him. "Luckily," she murmured against his lips, "I'm not doing it all by myself…"

"Well everyone needs a helping hand…" Xander ran his hands down Buffy's sides, fingers ghosting over her breasts before finally settling on her waist. "Even my beautiful wife…" he added as he suckled on her lower lip.

Buffy let her eyes half close as Xander began kissing along her jaw and then down the column of her throat. As he started along the top of her shoulder, Buffy took hold of his left hand and lifted it up. "Feel like showing-" Buffy placed her lips over his wedding band and kissed it. Xander stopped in his ministrations to look at her. Buffy smiled and continued, "-your beautiful wife just how much you love her?" 

"Always baby," Xander kissed her on the mouth again. "Always."

-------------------

__

(Early next morning)

Giles was just clearing his breakfast dishes from the table when he turned to see a kimono clad woman who had just emerged from the bathroom. "Feeling better?" he asked, smiling in sympathy. 

"Not really," Ren replied as Giles headed past her, carrying his empty plate, which she took one look at before looking back at him. "Just, next time you decide to have a full English breakfast, warn me a couple of days in advance..." Ren put a hand to her stomach. "Just the smell…"

"Sorry." Giles leaned against the counter, watching Ren as she joined him in the kitchen; she looked like death warmed up, her untidy red hair now stark in contrast to her tired, pale face. "Look, why don't you go back to bed?" he suggested.

"Actually," Ren replied, fixing herself a glass of water. "I was gonna have a bath in a little while. I've got some herbal aromatherapy stuff I can put in it that's s'posed to help with morning sickness." Ren downed her drink in one and began to pour herself another glass.

Giles came up behind Ren and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder just as she turned the tap off. "Do you need someone to scrub your back?"

Ren chuckled and leant back against him. "That would be nice."

-------------------

__

(Later that day)

"Oh bloody hell," Giles grumbled as he sniffed the back of his hand. "I'm going to smell like lavender all day now aren't I?"

Ren grinned and set a cup of tea down in front of him as he sat behind the pay counter at the Magic Box going through the accounts. "It's not too bad." Ren stepped forward and placed a kiss on his cheek. "Don't worry about it."

The bell above the door suddenly tinkled. "I'm sorry, but we're closed for lunch-" Giles stopped midflow when he turned to see Cordelia coming down the steps from the door towards them. He looked at her with surprise. "I thought you were leaving last night?"

"Oh, I was," Cordelia replied, pushing her sunglasses up on to her head. "But I thought I'd extend my vacation. I haven't had time off in, like, forever."

"In that case," Ren said, "I hope you enjoy your stay at the Boca del Infierno Resort. The nightlife is spectacular and you can take a tour of the many spiritual and sacrificial sites."

"No thanks," Cordelia replied, dropping her purse onto the large table at the back of the store. "I did that trip in High School." She looked around the Magic Box as she sat down beside the table. "Do you know what would work well here? If you branched out into hot beverages." Cordelia looked back at Giles and Ren. "Y'know, 'Buy a big dusty book and get a cappuccino and cranberry muffin to go'."

Giles just stared at the brunette. "I think not." Giles took a sip of his tea. "And if you're on vacation, what are you doing loitering in here?"

"Giving you business advice, duh," Cordelia replied. "And way to make me feel wanted."

"I didn't mean…" Giles sighed. "I'm sorry Cordelia, I just meant seeing as how we don't offer coffee and cake with our purchases, you might have found something a little more exciting to do with your time."

"Well I have," Cordelia told him, now less huffy than before. "I'm meeting Willow and Tara here in a few and we're going for lunch." She looked at Ren, her eyes widening a little. "Hey you wanna come? I didn't ask before 'cos you said you've been ill. I didn't want you yakking up all over my shoes."

"I'm touched," Ren said, rolling her eyes a little, and also felt a little guilty about not telling people why she'd been ill. Ren and Giles had yet to tell anyone about Ren's pregnancy. They'd found out about three weeks prior to the wedding, but not wanting to steal any of Buffy and Xander's limelight, they were going to wait until Buffy and Xander had got back from honeymoon. 

Ren turned to Giles. "Can you cope if I duck out for a couple of hours?" she asked.

"Of course he can cope," Cordelia replied for Giles just as Willow and Tara came into the shop. "Hey girls, guess what?" she called out to the witches as she grabbed her purse from the table. "Ren's coming with us. The old guy that smells of lavender is gonna look after the store."

Willow looked at Ren who was shrugging on her jacket. "Oh you're feeling better? That's great," Willow said brightly as Tara waved 'Hi' to Giles.

"Better than I was anyway," Ren replied with a smile, she gave Giles a quick peck on the cheek then picked up her purse. "See you later sweetie," she said as she followed after Cordelia and the witches. "Hey," she tapped Tara on the arm as they got to the door. "You two heard from the happy couple yet?"

Tara chuckled. "No. But I don't think…"

Giles missed the end of Tara's sentence as the door closed behind the four women. The frown he'd worn for a few seconds before it cleared when Ren kissed him goodbye had returned.

He picked up his tea and looked at the brown liquid despondently before putting the cup down again. "Old guy?" Giles muttered. "Wonderful."

-------------------

"Hey, wife?!"

Buffy laughed before she pretended to sound offended. "Xan, would you stop calling me that?!" she called back.

Xander just grinned at her as she walked into view. He leant up against the wall of the archway that joined the kitchen and main living area. "How 'bout *hot* wife'?" he suggested. "'Cos *damn* that dress looks good on you."

Buffy grinned back and twirled around on the spot, her short, white summer dress lifting a little as she did so, causing Xander to duck his head a little, hoping to get a better view. Buffy flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Honey," she said with a raised eyebrow. "You've already seen that today. And would you put some pants on?" Buffy threw him a pair of jean cut offs that had been draped over the back of a chair. "I want to at least see if we can get to the beach today."

"And not just the hood of the car?" Xander smirked as he pulled on his cut offs.

Buffy narrowed her eyes at Xander playfully. "Yeah, well, *husband*, maybe if you could keep it zipped up for the afternoon, I might-" Buffy began walking over to him, "- not get so distracted…"

"Oh yeah?" Xander leaned closer to Buffy as she ran her finger down the centre of his chest. "Buffy, you can't keep your hands off me, you know that…" he dipped his head as if to kiss her then pulled back, grinning.

"Are you suggesting," Buffy sounded amused, "That I can't go without some touch for a few hours?"

Xander shrugged, still grinning. "Pretty much."

"Fine." Buffy sent Xander a challenging look. "But, I'm not gonna make it easy for you to resist me either."

Xander matched her look. "Loser makes dinner?"

"You're on."

-------------------

"O-kaay…" Cordelia said slowly, watching in slight disbelief as Ren polished off her second plate of fries. "I guess you really are feeling better, huh?"

Ren met the brunette's look. "Guess so," she shrugged, then looked at Willow's plate and at the few fries that remained. "Are you going to eat those?"

"Well so long as you don't barf it all up again," Willow remarked as Ren took one of the fries. "I value my shoes just as much as Cordy."

"What are we talking about?" Tara asked as she returned from the bathroom.

"Ren's gluttony," Cordelia replied as the blonde witch sat back down at their table. "But if it's gossip you want…" she continued, sounding conspirital as she looked at Ren. "Why don't I see a ring on your finger, huh? Especially as I bet twenty bucks of my hard earned cash on Giles asking at the wedding."

Both Willow and Tara shot a dark look at Cordelia, who either ignored them or never noticed. They both then looked at Ren. "It's just we all-" Tara began awkwardly.

"Kinda bet," Willow continued, "On Giles asking…"

"O-or you," Tara cut in on her girlfriend, "To, y'know…"

"I know." Ren smiled, hoping to ease the witches' embarrassment. "Me and Rupert both sort of guessed."

"So you both chickened out, huh?" Cordelia shook her head before taking a sip of her diet coke.

"No money for Willow." The red headed witch pouted.

"Oh for God's sake…" Ren rolled her eyes. "OK, OK," she sighed and suddenly all three other women's attention was on her. "*I* was going to ask at the wedding."

"Ooh cha-ching!" Willow beamed.

"Sorry, no." Ren replied and Willow's face fell again. "We both fell asleep before I had the chance," Ren continued. "Once Willow's spell wore off we both kinda zonked out rather quickly." She shrugged, "And if he was going to ask… I don't know." Ren shrugged again. //I really don't know.//

The other three exchanged glances when Ren started stealing fries from Willow's plate again. "Y'know, I'm sure it's just a question of finding the right moment," Tara reasoned.

"Yeah," Willow added, "And it's not like there's any rush." She smiled at Ren when the other redhead looked at her.

Ren smiled back. "I guess not."

"Does that mean the bet still stands?" Cordelia asked suddenly. The others looked at her. "What? Twenty bucks is twenty bucks girls."

Willow turned to Ren. "Um… are you still planning on asking?"

Tara raised her hand. "Can I change my bet?" she cleared her throat, "I sorta went for Mr Giles"

"Sweetie," Willow pulled her girlfriend's arm down, "He doesn't mind if you call him Giles. And no, you can't change."

"Well that means Xander's gonna win," Cordelia complained. "That cannot happen." Cordelia grabbed Tara's hand nearest her and raised it along with her own. "I wanna change too."

"No!" Willow reached over the table and pulled their hands down. "It's totally against the rules."

Ren just chuckled softly to herself as the other three argued amongst themselves. Suddenly she caught the waitress's eye and signalled to their table. "Can I get some more fries here?"

-------------------

__

(A little later that day… a secluded sand dune somewhere just over the Mexican border…)

Buffy wrapped her hands around Xander's neck as she lay beneath him, trying to get her breath back. The sand she laid on was rough against her bare skin and getting into places she knew would be uncomfortable later. Buffy moaned as Xander kissed her again and she arched up, pressing her body against his.

"Did we actually decide-" Xander broke off to kiss Buffy again, "-who ended up jumping who?"

"No." Buffy kissed him again, sliding her hands down to his bare backside. "Although, I think it might have been," another kiss, "When we decided to get take out."

"I don't know what we were thinking…" Xander gently collapsed against her and Buffy held him close as he reached out one hand and began stroking her hair. "… trying to resist each other."

Buffy smiled back up at him and slid one of her hands up rest in the centre of his back. "Stupid us, huh?"

"Yeah," Xander murmured, brushing his lips against her softly. He looked into her eyes. "I love you Buffy Summers."

Buffy smacked him lightly on the ass. "Buffy Harris." She kissed him. "I can guarantee you'll never forget that in a hurry."

-------------------

Later that evening, Ren sat at one end of the couch, her legs curled up beside her and engrossed in the book she was reading. Pretending to be engrossed anyway; she hadn't turned a page for the last five minutes. Instead she was watching Giles out of the corner of her eye with a little concern, as he sat at the table sorting through the many kinds of crossbow ammunition he had laid out infront of him.

When one bolt suddenly dropped out of his fingers and onto the floor, Ren frowned when he cursed loudly, slamming the bolt back onto the table when he'd picked it up.

Ren sighed and set her book down beside her. "Right that's it," she said and Giles turned to look at her. "What's wrong?" she asked. "You've had a face like a bloody wet weekend ever since I got back from lunch with the others."

Giles took off his glasses and set them on the table before rubbing at his eyes. "I'm just tired."

"Tired the whole afternoon?" Ren raised her eyebrow when Giles put his glasses back on and returned to sorting through the weapons. "Yeah. And I'm Mary Poppins."

"Well, you are rather good with an umbrella," Giles replied without looking up. "That K'dalh demon you ran through with one, certainly wouldn't argue."

"Rupert…" Ren got up and went over to sit in the chair opposite to him. "Something's up." She put her hand over his, stilling it. "I want to know what."

Giles looked across at her. "Really, I'm just tired," he assured her, giving her a small smile.

At least it was half true, he'd just tired himself out thinking about things; things, he decided, that he wanted to stop thinking about for the moment as Ren got up and stood behind him, resting her hands on his shoulders. 

She bent down and kissed him on the side of his head. "In that case," she said softly, "How about you join me for a quick nap before we head out on patrol with the others?"

Giles turned his face up to Ren as she stood just to the side of him. "You still want to go out on patrol?" A slight frown crossed his face. "What about-"

"Hey," Ren cut him off, but she smiled good-naturedly. "Pregnant lady here, still able to hide up trees and throw holy water balloons." She waved her right arm a little. "Good aim remember?"

Giles sighed and somehow he found himself agreeing as he allowed Ren to lead him up stairs. As they settled on the bed, Ren curled up against him and laid her head on his shoulder, draping her arm across his chest.

"Love you." Giles heard her murmur as she closed her eyes.

"Love you too," he murmured back, wrapping his arm around her. //But in the end, am I going to be the right one for you?//

-------------------

__

(Meanwhile… somewhere else entirely…)

Raif coughed a few times to clear his lungs once he stepped from the portal and onto the solid, but dusty and cracked ground that spread for a distance around him. He coughed once more when the surrounding wind picked up some dust and blew it straight into his mouth.

"Enchanting place," he spluttered in a lilting French accent.

"Isn't it?" a similarly accented female said as sarcastically as she could manage whilst trying to clear her lungs.

Raif turned to Lena, the female, and another male who had just stepped from the same portal. "Hopefully we will not be here too long," Raif said. "The job is supposed to a simple one."

"Are you kidding me?" the other male said; his accent was Texan. He brushed himself down. "And shut that damn portal off would ya? The dust's kicking up enough as it is."

Raif looked at the other male and rolled his eyes. "Adon, we are here merely to see if anything is salvageable. It is not long term."

"This ain't gonna be salvageable in a minute if you don't shut off that portal!" Adon shot back, gesturing to his Armani suit that was slowly becoming covered with the flying dirt.

"Raif?" Lena shot a look at him. "We need to get going. They were expecting us an hour ago."

"OK, OK." Raif pointed the slim, black device in he held in his hand at the portal. He keyed in a 5-digit code on the numbered keypad and then depressed a larger button at the top of the device. The portal disappeared. "Happy?" Raif said to Adon once the rushing sound had stopped and the dust only blew around their feet.

Adon smiled thinly. "Much. Thank you." 

"Let's get going shall we?" Lena began to walk off, brushing dust from her hair as she went.

Both Adon and Raif spent a few seconds watching Lena's rear as before they followed after her.

Adon looked up with apprehension at their destination. He turned to Raif. "These Bhren guys really knew how be imposing, didn't they?"

Raif nodded in agreement as he looked up at the gloomy looking castle. It was built from black stone and was about ten storeys high on each of the four sides, with round turrets covering the last two storeys on each of the four corners.

Raif sighed and rubbed at the base of his left horn. "I really hope there is running water."

-------------------

"So this is them, is it?" Rojhar muttered to himself when he spotted the portal from his viewpoint in the front east turret. He shook his head and pressed the button on the intercom by the door. "Haxor!" he called into the speaker, "They're here!"

-------------------

Lena stepped up infront of the smaller door that made up part of the much larger door at the front of the castle. She glanced behind her and rolled her eyes as the two males huffed and puffed their way up the steep steps that led to the door.

"You two are a disgrace," she said, shaking her head as Adon and Raif joined her.

"Whatever." Adon ignored her. "Aren't ya gonna knock?"

Lena frowned at him, but turned back and raised the large doorknocker high off its hinge and then let it fall. All three winced when the wood below it cracked as it banged back down.

"Uh, we'll just say it was already like that, yeah?" Adon turned to Raif who nodded quickly in agreement. 

"Do you think anyone is home?" Raif asked after they'd stood for a few moments.

"Patience." Lena glanced back at him briefly. "The Bhren are not the most nimble of demons."

Her statement was proved when a hulking seven-foot tall, humanoid, blue skinned demon opened the door. And he would have been a whole lot more impressive had he been wearing his full battle armour. However, this particular demon was wearing an open short sleeved shirt and Bermuda shorts.

Lena looked the demon up and down as he stared impassively at her. She coughed politely. "We have an appointment."

-------------------

Haxor returned the cursory once over he got from the visitors that stood on the doorstep. All three stood at least a foot and a half shorter than him. //And could probably pass for those disgusting humans at a fair distance too// he thought. But close up, he realised; there was no mistaking that they were demon. Even if they did carry briefcases and over night bags.

The visitors all had olive complexions and their eye sockets were deeper set into their skull than a human's and their irises were bright gold. They had hair too. The two males had short black hair and it allowed the small black horns either side of their forehead to be seen, whilst the female's long, black hair framed her face and fell over her horns. Each also had markings on their face; tiny tattoo after tiny tattoo that ran in lines from either side of the bridge of their nose and along the ridge of their eye sockets and out to their ears and then down the side of their face and then their necks. The last distinguishing mark was a band of millimetre high ridges, a centimetre wide, that ran from the centre of their lower lip, over their chin and down their throats.

They dressed like humans too. The males wore black suits; one wore a white shirt with a round collar and no tie, the other wore a white shirt and black tie. The female wore a black skirt suit with a red blouse underneath and she had a thin sliver torque around her neck. 

Haxor crossed his arms infront of his chest. "You're from Pagaelian and Sons?"

"We are." The female flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Can we come in? We are expected."

Haxor still stared back at her. "I'll need to see some ID."

"I don't believe it," the male wearing the tie muttered, fishing in his back pocket for his wallet before handing it over along with the others.

Haxor glanced down at the complaining demon's company identification card. 'Adon' was all it had written down as a name, along with his picture and his job title of 'Administrator'. There was also a flashy hologram of the Pagaelian and Sons logo in the lower left corner; a filigreed 'P' overlaying a fleur-de-lis. The other two demon's ID's read the same - company name and hologram, only one name for the card holder, picture and job title, except the female was 'Senior Administrator'.

Finally, Haxor handed them back. "Everything seems alright," he said, stepping back into the castle. "Come on in."

-------------------

Willow frowned when she saw the 'Closed' sign hanging on the door to the Magic Box. She tried the handle, but the door didn't open. Sighing, she got out her key; one they all had for emergencies, and proceeded to let herself, making sure to re-lock the door behind her.

"Giles?" she called out, as she headed towards the counter. "Ren?"

She got an answer from neither. Willow set her bag down by the till and then raised an eyebrow when she saw a half a cup of tea by a notepad and pen behind the counter. Willow picked up the cup and found that it was still warm. //OK, either they've just gone out or they're hiding from me//.

Then she heard a soft, methodical thumping sound from the backroom that had been converted in a training room, mainly for Buffy, but all were free to use it. Willow headed tentatively over towards the sound. "Uh, hello?" she called out, wary that the last time she'd wandered in when the Magic Box had been 'Closed' she'd found Buffy and Xander in a state of undress and finding Giles and Ren… Willow really didn't want to go there.

But she didn't have to. When she opened the door to the training room, Willow found Giles sitting on the bench by the left wall, throwing knives at a target on the opposite wall - all of them were hitting the bullseye.

"Uh, hey?" Willow smiled tentatively at Giles, as his concentration seemed fixed on his task. "Looking good with the knives there. Not at all scary."

"Helps me think," Giles replied, throwing his last knife, almost immediately getting up and crossing over to retrieve them. But he set the knives down on the table instead of starting all over again. "Can I help you with anything?"

"Oh, not an emergency, 'cos I know with the letting myself in and everything," Willow rushed out. "Me and Tara were just working on that sunlight spell and we ran out of a few things and rather than stop and wait, I rushed out and came here for, uh-" she pulled out a list from her pocket and started to read, "Bindweed, salamander eyes, um, fleabane." She looked back at Giles. "I was gonna leave money by the till, promise."

"It's fine. Everything in the name of progress and all that. Well," Giles began as he walked past her and back into the store; "I think I have all of those…" He turned back to her as she followed. "Are you having much luck with it?"

"There's a little glow," Willow replied with a modest smile. "Not enough to dust a vamp, but hopefully enough for a little undead sizzle."

Giles handed her a jar. "Anything to put them off their guard is welcome." He rubbed his shoulder. "Especially as we're doing the patrols without a Slayer at the moment."

"Maybe you should change places with Ren," Willow teased. "Take your turn with the water balloons."

"I'd rather stay on the ground, thank you very much," Giles replied, handing her another jar. "And I thought I did rather well."

"And don't think I don't appreciate you tripping over that branch and knocking that vamp over so I could stake him." Willow's slight grin faded when she saw Giles frown at her. "W-well I did."

Giles took off his glasses rubbed at his forehead. "Well, in that case," he looked back at her and smiled a little as he put he glasses back on, "You're welcome."

Willow smiled back as she set down the jars on the table and began taking what she needed out of the jars. "So? Where's Ren anyway?" Willow looked back up at Giles. "Or did she get wigged by the knife throwing too?"

"No. She's got some errands to run." Giles placed another jar beside the others. "And can't a man get some target practice in when he wants?"

Willow just looked at him and raised an eyebrow slightly. "Thought you were thinking."

Giles frowned. "Are you going to take all of that?" he pointed to the Bindweed that Willow had in her hand.

Willow looked down and then put some back in the jar. "Not if I want to blind everyone in a two mile radius," she replied. Willow looked back at him. "You want some help with that thinking?" she asked. "Y'know, problem shared-"

"There's no problem," Giles cut in on her. "But a kind offer. And didn't you say you were in a rush?"

Willow looked at her watch. "Oh crap." She quickly bagged up the things she'd come for and put them into her bag. "That kind offer still stands," Willow called out over her shoulder as she hurried towards the door.

Giles scratched at his head as he watched Willow let herself out. Silently he began placing the jars back on the shelves then locked the door before heading back to the training room.

-------------------

Buffy hooked her leg over Xander's and pressed herself close against his side as they lay together on the bed. "Xan?" Buffy said, propping herself up on her elbow before she took another spoonful of ice cream off Xander's bare chest. "I've been thinking…"

Xander just stared back at Buffy as she put the ice cream into her mouth and sucked the spoon clean slowly. "I bet it's not what I'm thinking," Xander replied, his eyes half closed as his gaze flicked across her face and over her naked body.

Buffy grinned at his attention, then took another mouthful of ice cream. "I wanna redecorate."

Xander's gaze snapped back to her face. "Huh?"

"Not the whole house, I mean," she added. "Just the spare room."

"Buffy, that's not a spare room. It's just a really big closet." 

Which was true, sort of. Their home did originally have three bedrooms, but the previous owners had knocked down the dividing wall between the two medium sized bedrooms, leaving a larger main bedroom with a small en-suite bathroom. The room Buffy was talking about was just about big enough to swing a large cat - should you want to - all it contained was a futon, a bookcase and a potted plant, that she now realised she had forgot to tell Willow to water while they were away.

Buffy chased a trickle of melting ice cream with the spoon as it ran down Xander's side and caught it just before it hit the sheet. "But it still needs doing." Buffy pouted a little. "And you ended up doing the entire house when we moved in…"

"You had school and exams and things to kill," Xander replied as he reached up and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. "And you *did* help."

Buffy was still pouting. "Yeah, I lifted the couch so you could lay the carpet."

"Buff…" Xander sighed as Buffy began absently spreading the rapidly melting ice cream all over his chest. "You also picked the paint, the wallpaper, the carpets, the drapes, told me where to put things… baby, you helped big time."

"So can I do the spare room?" Buffy looked at him hopefully.

"You don't have to ask you know," Xander said, raising his head off the pillow to look at her properly. His head quickly fell back down again when Buffy leant over to lick his chest. Xander groaned happily. "What I want to know is, why," he groaned again when Buffy swiped her tongue over his skin once more, "You want to."

Buffy looked at him a little guiltily. "I just felt, still feel even, that I've left you to do everything," she sighed, "With the house, the money, even though I know Giles and Ren pay me more than they should mmph-"

Xander's lips were against hers and he was kissing her hard. His arm curled around her, pulling her closer. "Don't," he said. "Don't even think that any of that makes a difference to me."

"I know that," Buffy said softly. She dropped the spoon and used Xander's discarded t-shirt to wipe his chest clean and then hers. "*I* just feel it sometimes…" Buffy tossed the t-shirt aside and reached out to run her fingers through his hair. "Sometimes I just want to look after you like you look after me."

Xander couldn't help the short laugh that escaped his throat. "Oh, baby…" He caught hold of Buffy's hand and rolled them both over so he lay over her. Xander looked into her eyes and saw her looking back at him, a little confused. Xander just smiled and smoothed back some of her hair before he laid his forehead against hers. "Buffy…"

"What?" Buffy started running her hands through his hair again and lifted his head up so she could look at him again. "What?"

"You." Xander smiled again, shaking his head. "Don't you remember what I said in my vows? What *you* said in yours? Buff, you *do* look after me. Like no one else. You rescued me." Xander sat up, pulling Buffy with him so his leg was hooked around her and his hands settled on her waist. "Baby, you saved my life. And I'm not just talking about from vamps or things with horns or more than one head. You saved me from myself." Xander brought a hand up to cup her cheek and she leaned into his touch. "I was ready to let it all go, but you never gave up on me." Xander cupped Buffy's face with both hands now. "You kept fighting for me… always you were fighting for me."

Buffy blinked back the tear she felt pricking at the corner of her left eye. "Well, you were worth it," she said softly. Buffy closed her eyes when Xander captured her lips with his. "Always worth it…" she murmured as Xander lowered her back down onto the bed.

-------------------

The interior of the castle was just as oppressive as the outside; black stone made up the walls and floors, the only variation was the green/grey stone that indicated the widely spaced, arrow slit windows. Adon cursed out loud when he stumbled over yet another broken slab of stone on the floor, his only light being the few rays of sunlight that filtered in through the tiny windows and the candle that their guide carried as he led them through the ground floor of the castle.

"Y'know," Adon said, "It wouldn't hurt to have a few lights on around here. Maybe even just some torches on the wall."

His remark caused the big blue demon they were following to turn around and fix a look on them.

"It costs money," Haxor replied.

"Your company should be pleased with that," Rojhar added as he joined them. He extended his hand towards Lena, much to the disgust of Haxor. "My name is Rojhar. I spoke to you over the communicator."

Lena smiled politely at the other demon, noting that at least he was dressed a little more like she would have expected; in a simple, long grey tunic that was tied at the waist with a thick brown belt. She took the larger demon's hand, grasping it firmly. "I am Lena. My associates and I would like to apologise for our lateness. There was a build up of inter-dimensional traffic."

"We're still using the J'polt 2X," Raif added, holding up the black device he'd used to close the portal. "We're hoping to upgrade to the 3X in a couple of months. It should cut time off our journeys."

Rojhar looked impressed. "You should be lucky to have the 2X." 

"We were using the old Denzion 300," Haxor added.

"I hated those," Adon muttered with a shake of his head. "They were like the Betamax of dimensional travel. They wouldn't even work in some sectors."

Lena coughed pointedly as Haxor and Adon shared looks of understanding. Rojhar gave her an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry," he said, gesturing along the corridor before them. "You would like to see the files? Or we have prepared some rooms for you if you wish to get settled first. We did not know how long you would be here."

"We would like to get started as soon as possible," Lena replied. "Could we see the offices first?"

Rojhar nodded. "Please, follow me." 

They walked for a few minutes more before Rojhar stopped outside a big and heavy looking wooden door. He reached into his tunic pocket and pulled out a large, metal key with which he proceeded to unlock the door. Rojhar pushed open the door, allowing the three smaller demons to enter first.

"I am sorry that it is a little untidy," Rojhar apologised as he followed the three inside. "And probably not what you are used to…"

"You're telling me," Adon replied as he looked around the room in the flickering candlelight and the small rays of sunlight that came in through the two small windows. The room was large, and from what he could see, it appeared to contain two large wooden desks to one side of the room and at the other there was a round table with a few chairs around it. Along the wall were what looked like bookcases, all filled with books, large and small, and also some objects that he couldn't identify.

"Here, take this." Rojhar handed the candle he held to Raif. "There should be some candles in here, I think. If you need anything else, call either me or Haxor. There is an intercom by the door."

Lena smiled graciously at the two blue demons. "Thank you," she said before laying her briefcase down on the nearest desk.

"Great," Adon muttered as the two blue demons left. "Talk about living in the dark ages."

"Adon, shut up." Lena snapped open her briefcase and pulled out a slim, flat black box. "It's a totally different culture to our own." She opened the black box to reveal it was in fact a sleek looking lap top computer.

"Lena, they use a Denzion 300," Adon reminded her. "They probably think a serial port is something you pour milk into."

-------------------

"Dark ages?" Haxor muttered as he had his ear to the door. He looked at Rojhar. "I cannot believe we are suffering the indignity of these people being here."

Rojhar pulled him away from the door. "Just leave them," he said. "It's not their fault."

Haxor scowled at his friend. "They work for Pagaelian and Sons. We have the damned *bailiffs* in for crying out loud."

Rojhar sighed. "They're not bailiffs."

"Fine," Haxor began to stomp off. "Interdimensional receivers then."

"Haxor…" Rojhar followed after the other demon. "Pagaelian and Sons loaned our kind a lot of money a long time ago to start up our little enterprise. You know as well as I do, it began to get less profitable as the centuries passed… and after that unfortunate incident a couple years ago…"

"I know, I know." Haxor stopped and turned to Rojhar. "And they took our castle and everything worth anything in it, including our means of dimensional travel. I heard the story Rojhar, I've heard it too many times."

Rojhar caught hold of Haxor's arm just as he began to walk off again. "They didn't take everything."

Haxor turned back to him, frowning. "What?"

"We still have the replicator," Rojhar said in hushed tones.

The other demon's eyes widened. "But I thought-"

"The elders took it when they were banished from the castle," Rojhar informed his friend. "We needed something to hold onto, there was always the hope that we could still get out of this world. Start somewhere new." Rojhar glanced back along the hallway to where they'd left the three demons in the office before looking back to Haxor. A wide grin broke out on his face, exposing two rows of sharp, jagged teeth. "They have a J'polt 2X…" Rojhar trailed off, raising an eyebrow.

Haxor stared back at him for a moment before he matched his friend's grin. "Do you want to tell the elders or shall I?"

-------------------

In the centre of the living room of the small apartment Willow and Tara shared, the two witches sat opposite each other, arms outstretched and hold onto each other's hands and both were wearing sunglasses. 

In-between where their arms met, was a circle of red sand and above it a small ball of yellow, almost white light began to form.

"Ooh ooh!" Willow exclaimed excitedly. "We have a glow!"

Tara removed her sunglasses and looked at the small orb of sunlight that floated a foot above the carpet. "Um, Willow? I-it's not very big is it?"

"Well, it's bigger than the last one," Willow said defensively, pouting a little at Tara.

"Oh, I'm not saying it's bad," Tara tried to mollify the red head. "It's good. We did good… I mean, conjuring sunlight *wow*, but-"

"But hardly enough to give a vamp a melanoma." Willow sighed, a puff of air escaping from between her lips as she pushed her own sunglasses up onto her head.

"Did Giles have any ideas?" Tara asked as the glowing orb dissipated when Willow waved her hand over it.

"Not that he gave me," Willow said. "I think he had other things on his mind."

"What makes you say that?"

"He was trying to kill the target board," Willow replied. "He kinda blew me off when I asked him about it. I was kinda anxious to get back, y'know, conjuring sunlight an' all, so I didn't try and see if I could get anymore out of him."

"Well," Tara said slowly, "Maybe he's thinking about popping a certain question?"

Willow shrugged. "Well, whatever he was thinking about, it's not helping us with this." Willow sighed again and stared at the spot where the tiny ball of sunshine had been.

"Maybe we just need more bindweed?" Tara suggested.

"Maybe," Willow agreed. "Maybe we just need more Wicca oomph."

"What if we tried it with Xander?" Tara began clearing up their ingredients. "He got that tinkerbell spell down pretty quick." She looked back to Willow. "I know it's not the same as *actual* sunlight…"

"Well, every little helps, I guess." Willow sighed again and began helping Tara to clear up.

"Hey, do I detect a frown in that?" Tara touched her fingers to Willow's cheek.

"Eh," Willow met her girlfriend's concerned gaze. "It's I just I wish we could get to use him like that a little more."

"He has work," Tara reminded her. "And he trains a lot with Buffy. You know he loves that. And not just because it's with her."

"I know, I know," Willow admitted grudgingly. "And I've watched them spar together, they're pretty fantastic."

"But?"

"But I like it when Xander's with us too. I think he's got potential, and so does Ren." Willow shrugged as she got up and walked to the window. "He could do so much more."

"He doesn't have to do magick if he doesn't want to," Tara reasoned, standing up and walking over to her girlfriend. "It's his life."

Willow turned to face her and smiled a little sadly. "I know."

Tara reached up and brushed Willow's shoulder length hair away from her face. "Do you know what I think?"

"What?"

"I think that as much as I like Xander doing spells with us-" Tara settled her hands on Willow's shoulders, "-I kinda like it best when it's just us. I mean, there are some spells that just wouldn't work with him…"

Willow raised an eyebrow at the all too innocent look on Tara's face. "Is that so?" Willow replied, not hiding her smile.

Tara grinned back. "Oh yeah."

"Then maybe we should work on them? Right now?"

"I like the way you think," Tara replied, but Willow was already tugging her towards the bedroom.

-----

__

tbc…


	3. Part Three

****

Forever Rules : Book One

Part Three

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With a towel wrapped around his waist and one looped around his neck, Xander stepped from the bathroom and headed towards the bedroom. He was surprised to find that Buffy wasn't there. With a slight shrug, Xander dried himself off and put on some grey sweatpants before he headed out towards the main living room, towelling his hair dry as he walked.

But Buffy wasn't there either and as he couldn't hear her making any noise, Xander was about to call out until he spotted a slight movement from outside on the veranda.

Xander smiled when he saw Buffy step towards the black iron railing that separated them from the outside world. Buffy was barefoot and wearing a tiny slip of a white nightdress that fluttered a little in the breeze as she stood looking out across the landscape. Xander was about to call out again, but he stopped himself and stepped back out of view of the doorway. He looped the towel back around his neck and held onto either end as he leant back against the wall and watched Buffy.

The sun was getting low in the sky, and the early evening light cast shadows on Buffy's face. Her hair was tied back in a loose braid, only a few stray locks of hair around her face moved in the breeze.

Xander's heart warmed as he watched her. She looked so serene as she stood there in silence, a thoughtful look on her face. //It's so great to see her when it doesn't look like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders//.

Xander was also still adjusting to the fact that the beautiful woman he was looking at was now his wife. And it wasn't as if being with her was anything new either. They'd been together for two and a half years now, and they'd lived together for just over a year and a half; most of that time was spent at Joyce's house, but they'd spent the last four months in their own home. 

It was just that this… Xander sighed happily. This was different somehow. Now, it wasn't like they were just playing at being a couple; Buffy *belonged* to him now. He knew that made him sound as chauvinistic as hell, but it was the only way he could explain it. 

But in that same way, Xander knew he belonged to Buffy. It was written, witnessed and they even had a certificate to prove that. Nothing and no one could take that away.

-------------------

Buffy closed her eyes as the dying sun still managed to warm her face. She took a deep breath, savouring all the smells that were around her, which weren't that many, granted, but enough for her to create a memory.

Buffy was determined that there were going to be more good memories than there were bad in her relationship with Xander. They'd had a few bad ones already; Xander's encounter with Tay was one that would stay with them both forever even though they'd both worked hard to put it behind them now. This memory she was making at the moment though, was a good one.

This was just so perfect the two of them here, away from everything else. It didn't happen that often, around eighty percent of the time, they were with at least one member of the scooby gang. It was one of the main reasons they'd come away on honeymoon too. They'd both thought about not taking one, just having some time to themselves back in Sunnydale, but both knew that wouldn't be possible with their closeknit group. So, they'd taken off to their 'call-us-when-it's-not-an-emergency-and-we'll-never-speak-to-you-again' honeymoon villa for just one week, taking a break from work, slaying, everything.

Now all Buffy had to worry about for the next few moments, was how much longer her husband was going to stand there staring at her before she had to go over to him and kiss him 'til he passed out.

And didn't that just make her insides melt? Buffy sighed happily. Her husband was just happy watching her as she stood still. Her husband. A smile began to form on her lips at that thought. //A man who's all mine. A man who can just give me the briefest smile or the tenderest glance and make my heart do that skippy thing that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. My guy// The tiniest frown appeared on Buffy's brow. //My guy who *isn't* over here kissing me//.

Buffy opened her eyes and turned her head, glancing over her shoulder. The frown disappeared and her heart did that skippy thing when she saw Xander, his sweatpants riding impossibly low on his hips and his hair damp and tousled, as he just stood there watching her.

Xander stepped away from the wall and headed slowly over to her. Buffy turned and faced him as he neared her, leaning back and placing her hands on the railing behind her. Xander gave her a lopsided smile as he stood in front of her. "Watcha thinking about?" he asked.

Buffy cocked her head to one side and smiled back. "Stuff."

"Oh that." Xander stepped closer and put his hands on her shoulders and caressed them gently. "Anything I need to worry about?"

"Nope," Buffy replied, closing her eyes as Xander started to run his hands down her arms, catching the straps of her nightdress as he did so, pulling them down over the tops of her arms. "All good stuff."

Xander felt Buffy shiver underneath his touch when he kissed the top of her left shoulder. "Wanna tell me 'bout it?" he murmured as he began trailing kisses up the length of her neck towards her jaw.

A tiny moan escaped Buffy's lips as Xander began nibbling at her earlobe. "We're kinda doing it now," Buffy said, grabbing Xander's ass with both hands and pulling him closer.

Buffy whimpered when she felt Xander draw his head back. She opened her eyes to find him grinning at her. "Not just yet we aren't," he whispered against her barely parted mouth before claiming her lips in a bruising kiss.

-------------------

Lena sat at one of the two desks in the office come dark cave that they'd been led to a couple of hours ago. Infront of her were three laptop computers, the screens of which were simultaneously feeding her bank accounts, lines of binary code and one had her email on it. 

Lena was all for using human technology, especially when you could upgrade with the demon tech that allowed you to email your mother who was back in your home dimension and tell her to stop trying to tell you about the annoying Cavgor demon next door when you were at work.

Lena sighed and clicked 'send' before she looked up to where Raif and Adon sat at the round table, surrounded by as many candles as they could find to help them as they poured through some of the newer books that they'd pulled off the shelves.

"Have you found anything?" Lena asked.

Raif looked up from his book and shook his head. He let the book fall shut with a thud, dust dispelling from some the pages, making him cough. "No," he said, "These are all dating back over a couple of centuries. If we're going to base our report on anything, we'll need something more up to date."

Adon still had his book open; he looked up at Lena briefly. "Rumour has it," he said, before dropping his gaze back to the book, "That their work dropped off a couple of centuries ago. No one is quite sure what is supposed to have happened."

Raif waited for something more from Adon but didn't get anything, the other demon seemingly intent on reading his book. Raif rolled his eyes. "Thank you Adon," he said dryly. "That was very helpful."

"Well, it might explain their non-existent finances," Lena remarked. "These," she gestured to the laptop screen that showed the transactions, "Are not pretty."

"Much like these guys," Adon smirked.

Raif sighed. "So, what do we do? We have to go back to Mr Pagaelian with something."

"I know," Lena replied, frowning. She sighed. "He wants to make some money out of this. So far I can find nothing."

"Maybe we can tell him to find something more profitable than making sure prophecies stay fulfilled," Raif suggested.

Lena shrugged and then glanced at Adon who was engrossed in his book again. "What is so interesting?" she asked, a little curious as Adon usually hated this kind of research.

"Just wondering about one of their last cases," Adon replied, tapping the page he was reading. "I guess it must be the one that ultimately sealed their fate into the hands of our company…"

Lena looked at Adon expectantly as he just trailed off. "*And*?" she asked with a touch of impatience.

Adon looked up at them both. "According to this," he tapped the book again, "They went after a Slayer and a young human male. There was a prophecy that this Slayer was to die at the hands of a vampire. She didn't."

"Why not?" Raif asked.

"It says," Adon continued, "That the other human, saved her. The Slayer went on to kill the vampire that was supposed to kill her."

"Does it say where this prophecy was written?" Lena asked, switching one of the laptops from her email to a word processing programme, her fingers tapping quickly over the keys as she took notes.

Adon scanned a few more paragraphs. "The Codex," he said after a moment. "But it doesn't say what the exact words were."

"So how does it start the Bhren's downfall?" Raif asked. "Surely they dealt with this Slayer?"

"Apparently not." Adon looked up at Raif. "They went, they fought and they lost. Big time."

Raif raised an eyebrow. "A troop of these demons against one girl? I know she was a Slayer, but still…" Raif gave a shake of his head in disbelief. "Surely the human couldn't have stood a chance?"

Adon shrugged and looked back to the book. "Turns out…" he said slowly, reading again, "That the boy was protected…" Adon raised an eyebrow. "*Damn* was he protected… man, whatever did he do to deserve that?"

"Who was protecting him?" Lena asked, glancing up from her notetaking.

"The Powers that Be," Adon stated.

"The PTB helped the Slayer destroy the Machen Bhren?" Raif sounded puzzled.

"No…" Adon scanned the page, "They sent a guardian for him. An Aurora demon."

"A North then?" Raif nodded his head as he spoke. "They're guardians of sorts," he continued. "Very powerful. It would explain the Bhren's defeat at any rate."

"I take it then," Lena said, "That this Slayer and the boy live to tell the tale?"

"Looks like," Adon replied. He began flipping through the rest of the pages left in his book. "The rest of these cases were also poorly executed," he carried on. "No one took them seriously, they lost face in front of people who used to fear them." 

"Which is why no one hired them as mercenaries afterwards," Raif added. "Apparently one of their main sources of income apart from taking hefty bribes to not kill those they were after."

"And why they no longer have any money to pay back Mr Pagaelian." Lena finished. She sighed. "This is looking like an impossible job."

-------------------

__

(Next morning)

With the sound of water running from the shower to his right, Giles, standing in just pyjama bottoms, took off his glasses and placed them on the counter beside him before he gazed back silently at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He pushed a hand back through his hair, holding it down when he reached the back of his head, exposing the gradually increasing widow's peak. He frowned and let his hair spring slowly back into place.

//I probably shouldn't even start on the amount of grey hair I could've sworn wasn't there before//. 

Giles sighed and thought better about counting the wrinkles he knew were there too. He dropped his gaze from the mirror and scratched at his chest before he started to empty the sink of water, only to find himself looking up again into the mirror when the shower curtain was pulled aside to reveal Ren standing there looking expectantly at him.

"*Ahem*" she coughed and raised an eyebrow.

"Hmm?" Giles didn't turn around to face her until he felt a splash of water against his bare back. "Ren," he said patiently when she put her hand on her hip, "You're getting water all over the floor."

"I don't care." Ren narrowed her eyes playfully at him. "Rupert, I'm naked and wet and I've been waiting five long bloody minutes for you to get your arse in here with me."

"Ren, I have to-"

"Did you hear me mention that I'm naked and wet?"

"I can see that." Giles smiled a little, looking her up and down. "Believe me I can see that, and don't think I'm not appreciative of your offer, but-"

"But you can get to work twenty minutes late for once," Ren purred, pouting a little for good measure. "Come on…"

"We have that order coming in," Giles reminded her. He put on his glasses. "I have to be on time."

"Sod the bloody order Rupert," Ren said as she stepped out of the shower. She stood in front of Giles and placed ran a finger down the centre of his chest. "Come on… twenty minutes for little ol' me?"

Giles stared at her for a moment, watching tiny rivulets of water run down her face. He placed his hands on her shoulders briefly before running them down either arm, stopping just above her elbow.

Ren closed her eyes when Giles leaned forward and kissed her softly on the lips. But her eyelids quickly fluttered open again when she realised he wasn't going to be kissing her anymore anytime soon.

"I have to get to the store," Giles told her as he drew back from her. "It's those Brazilian artefacts. They can't fall into the wrong hands." 

Giles felt like kicking himself when he saw the flicker of hurt in Ren's eyes and wondered why on earth he was pushing her away. It wasn't like the idiotic thoughts plaguing his mind were *her* fault. They just revolved around her and why he knew that soon she was going to realise that the father of her child was really just a stuffy middle-aged man who owned a shop. Nothing more. He wasn't the young Watcher who Ren had first gotten involved with; he wasn't even sure that he was the man that Ren thought she knew now.

He'd had these niggling thoughts for a while before the Buffy and Xander's wedding, even before Ren found out she was expecting. It wasn't just because of anything Cordelia had uttered flippantly or even what Xander's father had drunkenly stated to him at the wedding. But they hadn't helped. It wasn't as if Xander's father had been the first person to point out how visibly younger Ren looked than him either; strangers nearly always making the assumption that it was father and daughter in the store or wherever they were, always looking surprised when they found out that the two were lovers.

Ren always made a point of saying that she didn't care what people thought, and Giles knew that was true, and to some extent it was true for him too. He'd lived a good part of his life saying, 'I don't give a bloody fuck, piss off I'm trying to summon a demon', and it was still pretty much the same, but without the summoning demons. Well for fun anyway.

It was the fact that *he* was beginning to think he was too old for Ren. She *was* a 'firebird', as Mr Harris had actually quite eloquently put it. She was beautiful, smart, funny, loving passionate and damn capable of taking care of herself. Ren had a whole new life infront of her; she could travel, she could, well, she could do anything Giles had reasoned. What Ren shouldn't be doing was helping him a occult store in a small town in California, playing happy families with a guy who'd started wearing leather patches on his tweed jackets far too early than was strictly necessary. 

No matter how much Giles loved her.

And now Giles was watching the woman infront of him stepping away, her shoulders set a little firmer than they were just a few moments before, her eyes searching his face, looking for a hint of what might be wrong.

Ren shrugged off his hands from her arms. "Go on then," she said, her voice taking on that clipped English tone that she used when she was annoyed. "I know how in demand those Brazilian statues are."

"Ren, it's not-"

"Forget it," Ren stepped past him and grabbed her kimono from where it hung on the back of the door. "Obviously," she continued, shrugging the kimono on, "This wasn't the time to try and seduce you." She tied the sash at her waist and turned back to him, looking at him with confusion more than anything else. "Either that or my pregnancy has thrown my bloody hormones so out of whack they've actually affected you."

Giles stared after her in regret after she broke his gaze and left him alone in the bathroom. "Oh bloody hell," he sighed, turning round and banging the back of his head against the door. "Why on earth do I let myself get into these things?"

-------------------

"Wow."

"Would you stop saying that?" Xander glanced briefly over at Buffy before turning his concentration back to the road. "It's just driving."

"I know," Buffy replied, shifting her position in passenger seat of the small roofless jeep they'd hired for the week so that she was facing him. "But we're not stopping to have sex every five miles. We're just *driving*."

"I just said that," Xander said, rolling his eyes with a smile. "And what's with the *we're*? I didn't see you volunteering to take to the road. *And* *I* drove when we went to the beach the other day."

"Honey? Do you really want me to *drive*? In a foreign *country*?" Buffy grinned inwardly when she saw Xander actually mulling it over and then frowning a little at her, knowing he'd lost. "Thought not." Buffy smirked as she lifted her legs and put her feet up onto the dashboard, deliberately giving Xander a good view of her bare legs, her khaki shorts being, well, extremely short. She glanced out at the scenery from behind her sunglasses and then tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear when it was blown out of place by the wind that whistled past them.

A few moments later, realising that the rapidly passing scenery was making her a tad queasy, Buffy turned her attention to Xander, covertly studying him from behind the dark glass of her shades.

//OK, any woman, man or animal so much as *looks* at him today, is gonna get my patented deathray glare// Buffy thought as she studied the planes of Xander's bare chest and the tops of his arms, watching the muscles twitch as he moved the steering wheel. Her gaze drifted down to his thighs that were mostly covered by a cut off pair of old blue stonewash jeans. //And if they touch him, I may have to do some Slaying for the first time in days//.

Buffy's gaze then started to travel back up Xander's torso. She frowned a little when she saw the two large scars that ran the length of his abdomen, the ones that always made her feel ill everytime she saw them, remembering how he got them. Her coping strategy was just not to think about it, to just think about how well Xander was doing now. Sure he still thought about it, talked about it sometimes, but Buffy didn't bring it up unless Xander did.

There were also other assorted scars from nicks and scratches that he'd received over the years over his upper body and a faint two inch scar running down the centre of his left cheek and a smaller one on his forehead going into his hairline. Buffy tried to see through his wrap round sunglasses and at his eyes, but the sun was glinting off them too much and the baseball cap that he wore cast shadows over some parts of his face. 

A moment later, Buffy realised she must have been staring too hard or something because now Xander was looking back at her. 

"What?" he asked, sounding amused.

Buffy smiled. "Just looking."

Xander flashed her a grin and lifted his right arm off the wheel, executing an over the top muscle man pose then blew her an equally exaggerated kiss.

Buffy burst into giggles and Xander didn't help matters when he used his still free arm to tickle her, even managing to cop a feel of her breasts through the linen top she wore as she tried to squirm away. "Xa-an!" Buffy exclaimed, still laughing as she swatted his hand away. "*Driving* remember?"

Xander stuck out his tongue at her and put his hand back on the wheel. "Geez," he grumbled, albeit half-heartedly. "Can't a guy feel up his wife now and again?"

Buffy kept laughing, but reached out her hand and squeezed his thigh nearest to her. "Only if I can get some back," she giggled.

Xander cast a sidelong glance at Buffy as she continued to chuckle. He grinned to himself and gave a small shake of his head. "You keep laughing to yourself and people are gonna look at you funny when we get into town."

"Don't care," Buffy replied, grinning. "I'm never gonna see them again anyway."

"So I get to be the sane one on this trip, huh?"

"Honey, the locals aren't gonna notice me."

"Well, I'd notice a gorgeous woman with butt hugger shorts laughing maniacally in the street," Xander retorted.

Buffy snorted and smacked his thigh lightly this time. "Not if you want to live you won't."

"But only if it was you." Xander's reply was laced with sugar.

"Correct answer."

"That's because I'm well trained," Xander grinned. "Although I can't say what I'll do if other guys start noticing you. I might have to glare sternly at them."

"A stern glare? Is that all my honour is worth?" Buffy sounded affronted, but the giggle that followed cancelled it out.

"OK, you'd rather I do what instead?" Xander asked with a smile. "'Cos anything else is likely to get me arrested."

"You'd get arrested for me?" Buffy raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"I got cautioned for you once, remember? Indecent exposure?"

Buffy covered her mouth as she laughed. "Oh my God, I'd forgotten about that."

"Well sure you did, you were the one hot footing it away while I distracted the cops with my nakedness."

Buffy buried her face against her knees, which barely smothered her giggles. "Oh my God," she said again, looking up at him a few moments later. "OK, I promise, the next caution is mine. It's only fair."

"Ooh, does this mean more sex in public places?" Xander asked gleefully.

"Yup," Buffy grinned back. "Although, we are running out of new places to do it."

"Hey, maybe they've built something while we've been away that we can do it on the roof of when we get back?" Xander said hopefully.

"Maybe they- ooh ooh!" Buffy was suddenly distracted by some buildings on the horizon. "Look! Civilisation!"

"Y'know we could've got gifts for the guys when we got to the airport," Xander pointed out as they neared the small town. "I happen to know Ren would be quite happy with a gigantic Toblerone."

"Xan," Buffy half whined, "It's traditional. You go on holiday and everyone gets, like, little things made out of glued together shells and a miniature bottle of pineapple schnapps."

"OK, OK," Xander conceded as Buffy began to pout at him. "But I'm drawing the line at straw donkeys wearing hats."

"Not even a little one to annoy Giles?" Buffy did pout this time.

Xander sighed. //The Pout. Resistance is futile…//. "Fine. But you're buying it, and you can carry it *and* give it to Giles."

"You don't want to annoy Giles with me?" Buffy sounded a little surprised.

"No, I want Giles to give me guitar lessons. I think giving him tacky gifts like that might make him think twice."

Now Buffy sounded a lot surprised. "You want to learn to play the guitar?"

"Uh huh." Xander smiled back at her. "Kinda always wanted to. Oz made it look so cool."

"Oh my God," Buffy stared at him, looking and sounding a little amazed. "I don't believe it."

"But he did make it look cool." Xander looked at Buffy, a little confused.

"No," Buffy smiled. "I mean you. I mean, it's something I didn't know." She titled her head to one side, looking at him in disbelief. "There was something that I didn't know about you."

Xander frowned. "I never mentioned it?"

Buffy shook her head. "Not that I can remember." She smiled. "And I think you'd look as cool as Oz."

"Really?"

Buffy nodded. "And, if it helps, I'll tell Giles you knew nothing 'bout the straw donkey." Buffy paused. "You can give him the alcohol."

"How 'bout I give him tequila?" Xander suggested as they drove into the town. "Being in Mexico and all."

Buffy looked around at their surroundings. "Yeah, I don't think these guys are the pineapple schnapps kinda folk." She turned back to Xander as he pulled in to a parking space outside a small grocery store. "Will you play for me?"

Xander leaned over and kissed Buffy softly on the lips. "Everyday," he murmured. "Now," he continued, grabbing his shirt from the tiny back seat of the jeep. "We see if you remember the Spanish for 'Don't look at my ass or you'll get a stern glare from my husband'."

-------------------

__

(Next day - late morning)

Raif and Adon both walked in silence as they followed behind Haxor who led them through the still dark passageways of the castle. Raif stopped and glanced through one of the narrow windows. He squinted at first, his eyes adjusting to the major difference in light. When his vision finally focused, he stared out at a vast landscape consisting of a flat plain of caked, brown earth that eventually fed into higher ground, culminating in large, rocky mountains that only differed in colour from the ground by a few darker shades. All of which was looked over by a pale orange sky with a large red sun.

"It's not very inviting, is it?" Raif said quietly.

Adon walked back to him and nudged Raif aside so he could look himself. "Doesn't look very lively either," he remarked. Adon turned to Haxor who stood waiting impatiently. "What's out there? Get much wildlife?"

Haxor stepped up to the other two demons, looming impressively over them. "There are creatures that can be hunted, yes," he replied, then a little venom crept into his voice. "Also, our elders and the rest of our kind are now in the cave system that runs throughout those mountains. You remember? Our kind that your company banished from this castle when we couldn't pay our debts?"

Adon didn't flinch under the larger demon's dark glare; he'd fried bigger fish than this guy before. Instead, he smiled thinly and smacked Haxor on the back as the blue demon started off again. "Well, at least you got to stay, huh?"

Haxor resisted the urge to turn around and pummel Adon into the flagstones. Instead, he kept his thoughts on how on earth they were going to get hold of their state of the art portal opener without them noticing.

-------------------

__

(Meanwhile)

D'nal sat down and slumped back against the wall of the cave just by it's opening and looked out at the view before him; low hills of red brown earth on which nothing grew, getting flatter as it got further away. His gaze came to rest on the large, black castle that stood on a spot just before the horizon.

He frowned and slammed his fist into the hard rock of the cave wall; a few slivers of stone fell to the ground, barely making a sound. D'nal kept frowning as he raised his fist and looked at it, seeing spots of purple coloured blood beginning to rise from the scratches on the blue skin of his hand. 

"It's been over eighteen months D'nal. Get over it already."

D'nal looked up to see the demon that'd spoken walking towards him from somewhere inside the cave. "Get over it?" D'nal looked incredulously at his comrade. "Yester, we are *living* in *caves*." He used his arms to gesture around him and then to the castle. "We used to live *there*."

Yester stepped over to the opening of the cave and glanced briefly at the castle before he looked back to D'nal. "I know. It's hard," he agreed. "I miss my battle armour." He looked down at the well worn grey tunic and the badly stitched together animal hide trousers he was wearing and then looked back to D'nal, who was wearing the same. "But we had to make the sacrifices. Pagaelian has done worse than just banish people, remember? All they found of the last ones who didn't pay them, was an ear or two and some toenail clippings."

"I am *aware* of that fact." D'nal stood up and joined Yester and they both looked outside. "But I want to be back doing what we do best." D'nal turned so he met Yester's gaze. "Killing people. My brother was on that mission to take that Slayer. She and a *damned* *guardian* demon *killed* him in cold blood."

Yester laid a hand on his comrade's shoulder. "I know, D'nal. I had a friend too on that day."

"I hope I'm not disturbing something?" another blue skinned demon said as she joined the two by the cave entrance, holding a flaming torch in her right hand. As well as being smaller in body mass than the two males, the female demon was also six inches shorter. Her skin was a paler blue and unlike the males she had hair; it was thin and white and hung down to her shoulders. She wore tight animal hide trousers and a threadbare blue tunic that hung low at her chest, almost exposing her breasts. A brown belt at her waist was tied tightly to show off her svelte figure.

D'nal frowned at her. "Jenna," he said flatly, turning to face her and crossing his arms infront of his chest. "To what do we owe this pleasure?"

"The elders want to see us," Jenna replied. "We have to find Malax and his brothers."

"What's happened?" Yester asked, his stance shifting, suddenly feeling nervous.

"I don't know," Jenna replied, beginning to lead the other two back into the cave. "They sounded kind of happy though."

-------------------

__

(Later that evening)

Ren was not happy. 

Actually that was an understatement. 

In fact she was pissed off.

Extremely pissed off.

As she paced around the living room, she caught her reflection in the mirror that hung by the door. Ren stopped and stared back, seeing her own eyes flash angrily in the reflection.

"Where the *bloody* *hell* is he?" she asked her reflection. Ren set her shoulders squarely, adjusting the white, off the shoulder peasant top that she wore. "He says, 'I'll be home at seven', so what do I do? I get all tarted up, make a nice meal and does he show at seven? The fuck he does." Ren drew her attention away from herself and looked at the table that she'd set out with flowers and candles. "Not even at half seven, not even at eight, just a bloody phone call to say he's gonna be late."

Ren kicked out at the nearest wall, letting out a cry of frustration as she did so. Ren felt tears begin to prick at the corners of her eyes and she quickly blinked them back. //I will *not* cry. I bloody won't//. Ren sat down on the stairs and put her feet up on the step below where she sat, placing her forearms across the tops of her knees and then rested her chin on top of them.

Why was he avoiding her? What was wrong that he wouldn't tell her? Why did she just stand by and swallow those lies he'd told her about just being tired the other night? Why hadn't she forced it out of him?

Ren sighed and closed her eyes. //Just too many questions//. She knew things had been different between them since she'd found out that she was pregnant. The first few days afterwards, there'd been nothing that she could fault, she knew he was happy. Then, during the next few weeks that led up to Xander and Buffy's wedding, Ren had sensed him becoming more distant from her.

The reasons she could think of actually *hurt* her to think about. Did he now not want this baby? Had he changed his mind that quickly? Was it just a child that he didn't want, or was it her?

Ren groaned in frustration. Now she was just being stupid. A least she hoped she was. She lifted her head and looked around the empty apartment. //And now I'm depressed and by myself//. 

Ren got up and began to climb the stairs. "Only one cure for that," she muttered to herself. "Go and be depressed around other people so they all feel as bad as you do."

----------------

"Uh, Willow?" Tara held up the drink that her girlfriend had just given her and eyed it dubiously. "It's kinda… y'know… green."

"It's a Grasshopper. It's supposed to be that colour." Willow leaned back against the bar at the Bronze and grinned at her girlfriend as the blonde tentatively took a sip.

"Ooh, minty." Tara took a longer sip. "It's good."

"Excellent," Willow beamed. She pulled a small notebook out of her purse and wrote something down before putting it back. "Now we only have-" Willow grabbed the cocktail menu from the bar and glanced at it, "-fifteen more kinds to try."

"*Tonight*?" Tara almost choked on her drink. "Willow, y'know you don't have to get me drunk to have sex with me, right?"

Willow smirked at the couple of stares that Tara's remark drew from the people around them. "I know that sweetie, I think we proved that this afternoon," Willow replied with a grin. "But even three times this afternoon, I still don't think we're gonna be equal with Buffy and Xander anytime soon."

Tara laughed. "Yeah, I don't think I wanted to know what Buffy was doing to Xander when he was trying to speak to us on the phone this evening."

"How those two find the energy to patrol, I have no idea."

"Well," Tara said, raising an eyebrow suggestively, "Maybe we'll just have to ask them what their secret is…" she trailed off as she set her drink down on the bar counter. Tara wrapped one arm around Willow's waist.

"I don't think we need it," Willow replied. "After all," she grinned, "It's not like we have to keep anything up, is it?"

Tara burst out laughing and was about to wrap her other arm around Willow and lean in for a kiss when she saw Willow staring at something over her shoulder.

"What?" Tara asked, turning around. Then Tara blinked. "Uh… is that…?"

"Uh huh…" Willow trailed off and cocked her head to one side as she looked at their object of interest. "She seems, um… very, uh…"

"Focused?" Tara suggested, still unable to draw her eyes away.

"Yeah…" Willow paused. "Do you think we should go over and say 'hi'?" Willow turned to her girlfriend and then frowned. "*Hey*. Could we have the drooling over only *one* red head please?"

Tara cleared her throat and looked back at Willow a little chagrined even though she caught the humour in Willow's voice. "Sorry, but y'know, it's just a really flimsy-"

"I know..." Willow looked back to the dancefloor where they'd spied the really flimsy black dress that was being worn by Ren. Actually dress was kind of a loose description. It had a laced edged skirt that hung just mid thigh on one leg and fell diagonally so it finished just below her knee on the other leg. The top consisted of two wide strips of material that came up from her waist and covered either breast and then looped around her neck, leaving her back bare. Slung low around her waist was a silver chain and she wore silver bangles on either wrist. On her feet Ren wore black stilettos and her long red hair hung in loose curls down her back.

Ren was dancing by herself to the soft rock group that was playing that night at the Bronze. Damp strands of red hair clung to her forehead and her eyes were closed, a look of concentration on her face as she moved.

"Do you see Giles anywhere?" Willow asked Tara.

"Uh…" Tara glanced around. "Not at the moment." She looked back at Willow. "You think she's here by herself?"

Willow just shrugged and then the music began to slow. Willow caught Ren's gaze when the other woman opened her eyes and looked around. Willow smiled and waved at her.

Ren held the witch's looked for a moment as if unsure what to do and then she smiled back, albeit still a little hesitantly, before she grabbed a black purse off a nearby table and headed over to Willow and Tara at the bar.

"Hey," Ren said, a little out of breath as she swept a hand through her hair. "How long have you two been here? I didn't see you before, if not I would have said, hi."

"Oh, we were, uh, making out upstairs," Willow replied with a grin. "Probably wouldn't have heard you if you had."

"But you seemed like you were having fun without us," Tara remarked lightly, not expecting the sad look that flitted across Ren's face. Tara frowned a little. "…Not having fun?"

"Just felt like getting out of the house," Ren replied, forcing a small smile onto her lips. "Got a bit bored."

"Giles not-"

"Stocktaking," Ren cut in on Willow, the latter noting the slightly frosty tone in the response.

"W-well," Tara said, exchanging a quick glance with Willow as Ren took a moment to glare at a guy who was staring at her breasts. "You could try and have fun with us, y'know, if you want." Tara blushed when Ren turned back to her with an eyebrow raised. "Not that kind," Tara amended herself and handed Ren the cocktail menu that Willow had had. "Apparently we've got fifteen more to try."

"Yup." Willow said chirpily. "Nothing like good ol' fashioned drunken fun."

"Uh…" Ren handed the menu back to Tara, giving the blonde an apologetic smile. "I think I'll give it a miss, if you don't mind." She ran her hand through her hair again. "Might have some water though. It's getting a little hot in here."

"Yeah?" Willow frowned a little in puzzlement as Ren squished in between her and another guy at the bar. "I hadn't noticed." Willow saw Tara signalling to her and she looked to where her girlfriend was pointing up towards the air conditioning vent that was, at least, cooling her and Tara. Willow looked back to Tara and shrugged.

When Ren stepped back from the bar, Willow noticed that she had her eyes closed and was holding on to the bar tightly as if trying to keep her balance.

"Y'know if you will wear heel-" Willow was cut short when Ren's grip on the counter suddenly went and Ren collapsed to the floor.

"Ren?!" Willow exclaimed and she and Tara went to her side as the people around them moved aside. 

Tara put her hand to Ren's forehead. "She's burning up," she said anxiously.

"Let's get her up," Willow said, slipped her arm around Ren's back and draping the other woman's arm around her shoulder. "Get her onto a couch or something," she continued as Tara helped her to lift Ren. Both girls managed to half carry half walk Ren over to a battered chaise lounge that was hastily vacated by its occupants due to a few muttered words of Latin by Willow.

"Is she OK?" a guy asked who was hovering nearby with a few other onlookers.

"She'll be fine if she just gets some *room*." Willow shot a pointed look at the crowd who dispersed reluctantly.

"Hey I think she's waking up," Tara said. "Ren?" Tara put her hand to the other woman's forehead. "She's still hot."

Ren groaned as she shifted slightly. He eyes fluttered open and she swallowed hard. "What happened?" she asked as she tried to sit up.

"You fainted or something," Willow replied, helping her to sit up, placing a cushion behind her back.

"What?" Ren looked between the two witches anxiously. "Was I… was I out for long?"

"Barely a minute," Tara told her. "We just moved you over here." She gave her a concerned look. "Maybe we should get you home," Tara suggested and Willow nodded in agreement.

Ren's brow furrowed a little. "Yeah," she said softly, looking at the floor briefly. "Probably a good idea."

"Maybe it's still that bug you had a few days ago," Willow said as she and Tara helped Ren up.

"God, I hope not," Ren said quietly, and neither witch missed the worried tone with which she spoke.

-------------------

Xander jumped down from the stack of pallets and delivered a hard blow on the vampire's chest with both feet, sending the demon backwards against the back wall of the alley they were in before it slid down and landed in a heap on the ground, while Xander himself landed neatly back on two feet on the ground infront of the vampire.

"So where do you wanna go?!" Xander called out to Buffy as he kicked the demon down again as it leapt at him.

Buffy ducked a spinning kicked from the vampire that she was fighting. "I don't know!" she called back, lashing out with her foot into the vampire's kneecap, sending him back into the pallets that Xander had just jumped from. "How 'bout Mexican?!"

"Now that's not even funny," Xander replied, whipping a stake from inside his jacket as he ducked a blow from his vampire.

"Not even a little bit?" Buffy grabbed her vampire by the shirt it was wearing and hauled it up. She looked at the vampire and cocked her head to one side. "Did you think it was funny?" she asked. 

The vampire blinked, but that was about all it had time to do before it turned to dust. Buffy shrugged and then turned to Xander as he fought, twirling her stake between her fingers. "Need a hand, honey?" she called out.

"No thanks honey…" Xander said just as he struck home with his own stake. He turned back to her before the vampire even turned to dust. "I'm done here," he said, tucking his stake in his jacket's inside pocket. "You good?"

"Yup," Buffy said with a grin as she walked over to him. She tucked her own stake away and straightened his collar before brushing some dirt from his shirt. "You'll do. C'mon, we've still got time to find somewhere."

"In a minute." Xander snaked a hand around Buffy's waist and pulled her closer before kissing her hard on the mouth.

Buffy smiled up at Xander when they broke apart. She rested her hands on his upper arms. "So are ya gonna buy me dinner or what?"

Xander grinned and kissed her softly on the lips this time. He took one of her hands in his and threaded his fingers with hers. "So you want taco's, huh?" 

"I don't mind," Buffy said letting their hands drop between them as they began to walk from the alley.

"Y'know, our one night out," Xander said, "And we have to find trouble. Don't these guys want us to have dinner?"

"I think they kinda thought it was the other way around," Buffy replied with a grin.

"Yeah, but I'm the one that's still hungry," Xander grumbled.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "I should have remembered when I married you, I married your appetite too."

"Oh, I'm a complete package," Xander replied, grinning. "Scary inhalation rate of Twinkies included."

Buffy laughed and was about to swoop in for a kiss when they heard a scream come from not far down the street.

"Of course," Xander muttered, shaking his head as he followed after Buffy who had already began to run towards the screams. "Our work is never done."

-------------------

"Is Giles gonna be back soon?" Willow asked once they got Ren back home. "Do you want us to call him?"

"Just give me a minute, OK?" Ren replied as she headed straight to the bathroom.

Willow exchanged a look with Tara once Ren was out of sight. "What do you think's wrong?" Willow asked.

"I don't know," Tara answered quietly. "She looked pretty-" Tara was cut short when she heard the front door reopening.

Giles looked at the two witches standing in his living room with surprise. "Um… hello?" Giles looked at his watch. "Rather late for a social call…" he trailed off, frowning a little and looking a little anxious. "Nothing bad has happened has it?"

"Oh, no," Willow replied. "Well, nothing hellmouthy anyway."

"We were at the Bronze with Ren," Tara continued. "We just brought her home."

"Where is she?" Giles asked, glancing around, then he looked back to Tara. "Wait. You say you *bought* her home?"

"Were just talking," Willow began to explain, "And then she just collapsed."

"She's in the bathroom now," Tara informed him quickly when Giles' eyebrows shot up. "She just seems a little tired."

Giles hurried past the two witches and headed towards the bathroom. He was about to go in when the door opened and Ren appeared. She seemed a little surprised to see him.

"You're back," she stated quietly.

Giles looked back at her anxiously. "Are you OK? Willow said you collapsed."

"I did," Ren replied, running a hand through her hair. "But I'm fine."

"Well you don't look fine," Giles commented on her drawn appearance as she walked past him and headed back to the living room. "You look pale."

Ren stopped and turned to face him as the two witches now hovered awkwardly behind her. Ren looked at him for a moment. "I'm just tired."

Giles didn't miss the pointed look that went with those words, remembering what he'd said the previous night, but Ren turned from him again before he could say anything in reply. 

"Thanks, you two." Ren spoke to Willow and Tara with a weary smile on her face. "Sorry I spoilt your evening."

"It's OK," Tara replied as Willow's gaze flickered over to Giles who walked behind Ren, throwing a concerned look mixed with what Willow guessed at as frustration at the back of his lovers head.

Willow's gaze went back to Ren. "Just so long as you're feeling alright." Willow exchanged a look with Tara and the blonde nodded. 

"We should get going anyway," Tara said, "We were going to meet up with Cordelia and do a mini patrol."

"Like a patrol-ette." Willow added with a small smile, the awkward atmosphere she was beginning to sense, stopping her smile from spreading wider.

"Be careful," Giles told them. He stood by the couch now, his hands in his pockets. "Don't get into anything you can't handle."

"We will and we won't," Willow replied, giving him a brief smile as she took Tara's hand. 

"See you girls," Ren said as she saw the two witches out. "Say hi to Cordy for me."

"Sure," Tara replied. She put her hand on Ren's arm once they were outside. "Just take it easy, OK?"

"I'll try." Ren waited until they'd gone a little way before she closed the door. She headed into the kitchen without looking at Giles.

Giles watched her for a moment as she poured herself a glass of water. He was about to go to her when he spotted the half-cleared away table for the first time that evening. Just one plate was left on the middle of the table along with an unlit candle in a holder and a solitary rose in a vase. Giles guessed he would probably find whatever meal had been cooked in the trash.

Ren turned around to see him looking at the table. She met his gaze when he looked back at her. "Are you not going to ask?" she said, sounding hurt.

"You were…" Giles indicated the table. "I'm sorry," he said honestly. "I didn't know you'd planned anything."

Ren looked back at him with disbelief. "Forget the bloody meal," she said harshly, her eyes narrowing. "Do you even know what I'm talking about?" At the look of confusion on his face, Ren let out a short mirthless laugh. "Of course you don't."

"Well I would if you'd tell me." //And don't I realise how contradictory that sounds//. Giles moved into her path as she exited the kitchen. "I didn't even know you were going to the Bronze. And-and look at you-" he indicated her dress, "-you look-"

"What?" Ren put her hands on her hips. "Look what?"

//Amazing. Breathtaking. Still stunning even though you look so pale.// Giles thought. //And giving me all the more reason to think that you shouldn't be with me. That you should be with someone who doesn't get mistaken as your father.//

"Ren-"

"Forget it," Ren interrupted him. "I don't know why I even thought you cared."

"I care Ren," Giles said, momentarily shocked as she walked past him. "My God," he continued, turning to her as she began to climb the stairs. "Ren-" Giles broke off when Ren stopped midway up and turned to him. He held her look. "I *care*."

Ren just shot him an unreadable look and continued up the stairs.

"Ren!" Giles called after her as he began to follow her up. She didn't answer and Giles gave a short frustrated sigh. "Serendipity!"

This time Ren whipped around and stared down at him from the top of the stairs. A moment later he got answer. It was the sound of the bedroom door slamming shut. With him on the outside.

=====

tbc…


	4. Part Four

****

Forever Rules : Book One

Part Four

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lena was first up the next morning and had already been down in the office for an hour reading through the book that Adon had been looking through the previous day. 

With a sigh she finally closed the large tome, expelling some dust from the pages as she did so, before she pulled one of the laptops towards her. Yawning, she tapped at a spot on the screen and immediately a new window opened up for a new email message and she started typing.

DEAR SIR

THE SITUATION HERE IS AS DIRE AS WE THOUGHT. I CAN FIND NO WAY TO MAKE ANYMORE MONEY OUT OF THIS PLACE AS IT STANDS (SHORT OF SELLING THE CASTLE). THE ACCOUNTS ARE STRIPPED; ANY MONEY IS ALREADY GOING TO THE COMPANY.

I KNOW YOUR WISH WAS FOR US TO FIND SOME WAY TO RECOUP, BUT I CAN SEE NO WAY AT PRESENT HOW THIS CAN BE ACHIEVED.

I AM ATTACHING A REPORT, DETAILING ACCOUNTS AND THE MACHEN BHRENS 'DEALINGS' GOING BACK THE LAST FEW YEARS. 

WE WILL STAY HERE UNTIL YOU LET US KNOW HOW YOU WISH TO PROCEED.

LENA

After attaching her reports, Lena clicked 'send' and then shut down the computer. She got up and made her way to the door, but hesitated before hitting the button on the intercom. //Maybe I should do some exploring. If we're going to sell it, I should at least try and find some of its more redeeming features.//

-------------------

Haxor waited until Lena had left the office and was out of sight before he ventured in. He ignored the computers that sat on the desks, instead he started rummaging around in the drawers, hoping that they might have left a certain remote portal opener lying about where any self-respecting demon could remove it to a much safer place. Like to his back pocket.

But they hadn't.

Grunting in frustration, Haxor started on the briefcases next, but, short of ripping out the lining, thus alerting the visiting demons that something was amiss, he still couldn't find anything.

Haxor exited the office, remembering to close the door behind him. Rojhar joined him almost immediately.

"Did you find it?" Rojhar asked.

Haxor shook his head. "We'll search their rooms once they're out. Surely they can't keep it on them all the time."

"Let's hope not," Rojhar replied. "The elders are already making plans."

-------------------

Esta, an elder of the Machen Bhren, sat at the head of his makeshift table formed of the surrounding rocks deep inside the cave system. The clothes he wore, and those of the ten others of his rank that surrounded him, were a grade above what the rest of the demons that now dwelled in the caves.

Esta looked around at all of his colleagues before speaking. "So? Who's up for killing the Slayer?"

Eleven hands were raised.

"Excellent." Esta rubbed his hands together. "Now, who wants to eat?"

-------------------

Tara ambled around the Magic Box, occasionally picking up items and studying them, until she saw that Giles was free of customers. She walked over to the counter and gave him a warm smile. 

"Hi," she said. "Busy as ever I see."

"Well, I am feeling a little rushed off my feet," Giles replied. "I'm not usually here by myself."

Tara saw the sad look that quickly flitted across his face. She also noticed that he looked decidedly more haggard than he would normally do running the store by himself.

"Ren still feeling ill?" Tara asked. "I mean, I tried to call her earlier, to find out if she was feeling any better, but she wasn't answering. I didn't know if she would be here… o-or… not" Tara trailed off, feeling distinctly awkward for some reason. Maybe it was the slightly dark frown that Giles was wearing.

"I wouldn't know," he replied curtly. "I didn't see her this morning."

"Oh. Oh, um… well-" Tara began fiddling a little nervously with a lock of her hair. "Can you tell her I asked wh-when you do?"

Giles cursed himself when he could see he was making Tara feel awkward. He swallowed back some of his bad mood. "I will," he replied, smiling a little this time. It seemed to work as Tara eased off playing with her hair. "Um, was that all you came in for?" he then asked. "I forgot to ask how that spell went the other day. Do you need anymore ingredients?"

"Oh, we're fine for salamander eyes and stuff," Tara replied, smiling brighter this time. "And it went better than the last time. Well, we got a bigger orb anyway."

Giles frowned again, but this time in sympathy. "Any clues as to how you can get it bigger?" he asked as he simultaneously served a customer.

"Not at the moment," Tara replied. "Willow seems to think we might need Xander. Y'know, for, like, extra oomph."

"It's a possibility," Giles said, handing over the customer's change before looking back to Tara. "But, if you're planning on-" Giles glanced around and then continued in softer tones, "-using this in battle, then having three of you conjuring could prove difficult if we're up against it."

"I think there's major kinks to wear out first before we even start trying that," Tara replied. "Anyway," she shrugged. "We'll ask him when he gets back. It's Saturday night isn't it?"

"I think it's more like Sunday morning," Giles corrected her. "But I'm sure he'll be willing to oblige. I know he's always looking to further himself in that field."

-------------------

Buffy yawned as she drove up the dirt track towards their villa. It was later than she'd hoped they'd be back. The sun was already getting high in the sky and the heat made her feel even more tired and dirty. She glanced over her shoulder briefly at Xander who lay asleep on the back seat. An affectionate smile crossed Buffy's lips before she looked back to the road.

Their second bout of trouble the previous evening had turned into a lot more than just a bout. It appeared that the vampires they been fighting had been scouting for the large demon that they'd found in the next alley.

The demon was about eight feet tall, had scaly, green skin and weighed about six hundred pounds; most of it sheer muscle. When it realised that Buffy wasn't just an ordinary girl after she sent it flying backward ten feet, it took off. Buffy pursued it, but it was fast and she couldn't keep up. Especially when it jumped into a car and raced off at top speed.

She and Xander had jumped into the jeep and began to chase it down. Eventually getting alongside it, Xander had forced the demon to a stop in the middle of nowhere and God knows how many miles from their villa. They'd followed again after it took off on foot, but found it had only led them to two of its friends.

It had been a long battle. Xander wielded the only sword they had, which had luckily been in the back of the jeep, while she relied on brute force. Eventually Xander managed to chargrill one of the demons with magic, but when a second one went up in flames, it seemed to drain him and he just sank to the floor. When Buffy finally managed to kill the remaining demon, driving its head repeatedly into a rock, Buffy went to Xander, only to find him barely able to stand.

And then came the icing on the cake.

She had to drive them back.

It had taken her three hours, in the middle of the night, to actually find which was the right road to get them back and then she'd gotten a flat that then had to be changed.

As she finally pulled to a stop in the driveway. Buffy groaned and let her head rest on the steering wheel. Everything about her was bruised and achy. And she was still hungry and so tired. She yawned and stepped out of the jeep. And then winced when she saw the scratch marks that ran the entire length of the body and the point where the metal had actually been ripped through.

"Oh great," she muttered. "Like we're covered for demon damage." Buffy groaned again when she saw the dent in the hood of the car. "You see," she said to the still asleep Xander, "This is why I don't drive."

Buffy yawned again and reached through to the back of the jeep and ruffled Xander's hair. "Hey hun? Wakey wakey." Buffy sighed when Xander just mumbled something in his sleep. "Great."

With a great deal of manoeuvring, Buffy managed to get Xander out of the jeep and over her shoulder before making the short trip to the front door of the villa. She patted her own pocket for the keys before she remembered that Xander had them. Buffy grinned when she fumbled in the back pocket of Xander's trousers and she heard an appreciative moan.

"I thought I was supposed to get carried over the threshold," she muttered good-naturedly as she finally got into the villa. Heading straight to the bedroom she let Xander fall softly onto the bed, whereupon he immediately snuggled down into the covers.

"I think you've got the right idea," Buffy yawned, bending down to place a soft kiss on Xander's forehead. "But, you're hurt." She glanced at the makeshift dressing over the large cut that was on Xander's forearm. "C'mon," Buffy yawned. "Let's get you cleaned up."

Buffy disappeared and came back with a first aid kit. She sat down on the bed beside Xander and took his arm into her lap and unwrapped the dressing. "I didn't realise that the spell took it out of you like that," she said softly as she began to clean his wound. Xander still didn't stir. Buffy placed a small gauze pad on his cut and taped it down. "Guess the bigger the demon, huh?"

Buffy was answered with a soft snore from Xander. She chuckled and set the first aid box on the floor. Turning Xander slightly so his bad arm wasn't underneath him, Buffy spooned up behind him. She rested her head against his shoulder and curled her arm around him, tucking it against his chest. She'd just closed her eyes when she felt Xander stir ever so slightly.

"Buff?" he murmured sleepily.

"Hmm?"

Xander bent his injured arm upward to his chest and covered Buffy's arm with his. "Thanks."

"Welcome." Buffy kissed his shoulder. "Now shut up and go back to sleep."

"Yes dear."

Buffy felt Xander's chest rumble slightly with laughter and she smiled before she let herself drift off to sleep.

-------------------

Cordelia hummed as she made her way through Sunnydale's main park. Even with the slightly dismal weather, it was still definitely a change from the hectic pace of LA. Even if she was still trapped in the hotel all day, she could still feel it in the air all around her, buzzing in through the doors whenever they had visitors or clients. Here, despite it being a Hell Resort, as Ren so aptly put it, Cordelia couldn't feel the buzz as much. She wasn't too sure if she liked it or not, but Cordelia put that thought on hold when she saw a familiar figure sitting alone on one of the swings in the children's play area.

As she neared, Cordelia frowned a little when she saw the unhappy look on Ren's face. Mainly because it was a new one for Cordelia to see the redhead wearing. She'd seen Ren in varying degrees of happiness and had seen her angry enough to put her fist through a plate glass window, but nothing quite like the little girl lost look that graced the other woman's face right now.

"Hey," Cordelia gave Ren a small smile when she looked up. "You know you have to actually put some effort in to make those things work." Cordelia nodded towards the empty swing next to Ren. "That taken?"

"Not that I know of," Ren replied. She attempted a smile as Cordelia sat next to her on the empty swing. "What brings you out here? Thought you were revisiting old haunts or something today?"

"Which I am," Cordelia stated. "I'll have you know that many a memory got made out here. Mostly at night before I was completely aware of what lurked in the bushes." She paused briefly. "Well maybe some after…" Cordelia grinned.

"With a certain newly married man by any chance?" Ren raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah." Cordelia was still smiling. "Me and Xander rounded a few bases out here."

"But not quite all, huh?"

"Uh, no." Cordelia chuckled. "We got pretty darn close a couple of times though." She raised a questioning eyebrow at Ren. "I gather I missed out?"

"Quite a bit." Ren managed a smile.

"Well, lucky Buffy."

Ren sighed. "Yup."

Cordelia studied the other woman's face for a moment, making Ren give her a curious look. "Sorry," Cordelia said, shrugging. "Just wondering what's up with you."

"Couldn't find a witty way of asking?"

"I'm on vacation."

"Of course."

"So are you gonna tell me?" Cordelia asked, watching as Ren kicked up some of the woodchips beneath her feet. Cordelia paused. "This isn't, like, a bad fall out from a question you might have asked, is it?"

"No." Ren began playing with a lock of her hair. "I didn't ask." She gave Cordelia a smile that the other woman didn't know how to interpret. "Rupert's been, I don't know, pre-occupied with something." Ren sighed and turned her gaze to the ground. "He's been a little off since before the wedding." 

Cordelia saw that lost look again on her face and then heard Ren say in a small voice, "I thought he was happy about it."

"Happy about what?" Cordelia asked quietly.

Ren looked up at her, hesitating for a moment. "I'm ten weeks pregnant," Ren said with a small smile.

Cordelia blinked and her eyes went wide. "Oh my God," she said finally. "That's so… so *wow*. And would explain the whole sickness thing. That's…" Cordelia trailed off when she saw the sad look behind Ren's smile. "Great?"

"I was happy about it," Ren replied quietly.

Cordelia frowned when she heard the sad tone in Ren's voice. "But you think Giles isn't?" the brunette asked tentatively. "Why? What's he said?"

Ren sniffed delicately, trying to hold back the tears. "Nothing," she admitted. "It's just, at first he says he's glad, y'know, like, we're going to be a nice happy family. B-but then he's cut off and-and pushing me away and so I don't know what to think." Ren sniffed again. "Last night, I was at the Bronze. I-I collapsed. I thought… I thought that I could have… could have miscarried."

"Willow and Tara told me about last night." Cordelia pulled out some tissues from her purse and handed Ren one. "Have you been to see a doctor?"

Ren nodded. "Just been. She said everything seemed fine. Just told me to rest, that's all." She wiped at her eyes. "I was so angry and *hurt* last night. I mean, Rupert didn't even *ask* about the baby." Ren sniffed. "I don't what he's thinking. Except that maybe he doesn't want this."

"And you do?" Cordelia asked softly. "You really wanna keep the baby?"

Ren nodded as she wiped her eyes. "I want to be a family. I *want* Rupert." Ren looked back at Cordelia, her eyes glistening with tears again almost as soon as she wiped them away. "I've been alone all my life. I never had the chance to be with someone the way I wanted. Then I-I met Rupert all those years ago a-and I thought… I thought that he might be the one, y'know? O-or at least as close as I was gonna get." Ren managed a wry smile. "But that didn't work out. I was too much of a demon for him. He couldn't quite handle it, couldn't quite get his head around it, I guess." Her tears subsided briefly. "Same went for Xander. He was the first guy since Rupert that I thought… I really fell for him, I loved him. But there was…"

"Buffy?"

"Yeah." Ren saw Cordelia give her a look of understanding. Ren sniffed again. "And then there was Rupert again, wanting me, this mortal me and everything was so good." Ren's tears began once more. "I just don't understand why this all happened, why it's all starting to go wrong just so quickly and-and why I'm *sitting* on a bloody swing in a-a park *crying* about it and making a complete *idiot* of myself." She rubbed at her eyes with the heel of her palm. "Stupid, bloody hormones no doubt."

"Maybe." Cordelia offered her another tissue. "Ren, you're not making an idiot of yourself." Cordelia smiled sympathetically at Ren when she met her eyes. "And I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason why Giles is apparently acting like a complete asshole."

Ren choked out a strangled half laugh half sob. "I bloody well hope so." Then with that she started crying again and Cordelia got up and tried to comfort the other woman as best she could with Ren still sitting on the swing.

"Hey come on," Cordelia rubbed soothing circles on Ren's back as the red head's back as Ren leaned into her embrace, still crying. "You'll go talk to him, make it all right."

"But I love him," Ren sobbed quietly. "What if he really doesn't want me?"

Cordelia sighed softly and rested her chin on top of Ren's head. She was beginning to wonder if the word 'vacation' actually applied to her.

-------------------

Lena managed to find her way back down to the office. She'd given up trying to find any redeeming features of the castle. As far as she could tell, the place was falling to pieces.

When she opened the door, she found Raif and Adon situated in front of the computers. "Gentlemen, I see you finally managed to get up."

"Funny." Adon shot her a pained look. "You've got an email by the way. It's the big boss man."

"So soon?" Lena frowned. "I only sent him the reports this morning." She looked at Adon. "What did he say?"

Adon shrugged. "How should I know?" he replied. "It's your email. You almost ripped me a new one the last time I opened one of yours."

Lena sighed in frustration. "Do I have to do everything around here?"

"Well you did get made the boss on this project," Raif interjected, shooting her a smug smile when she frowned back at him.

Lena pulled her lap towards her and grabbed a seat. "Sometimes you two really annoy me."

"Only sometimes?" Adon pretended to sound hurt.

"_Imbecile_," Lena muttered under her breath as she opened the email and began to read.

LENA,

THANK YOU FOR YOUR REPORTS. I AM UNDER THE SAME OPINION AS YOU ARE THAT THIS SITUATION DOES, IN FACT, LOOK HOPELESS.

HOWEVER, I FEEL THAT WITH A NEW APPROACH TO THIS, SPECIFICALLY OUR APPROACH, WE CAN BRING THIS 'BUSINESS' OF THESE DEMONS TO FRUITION.

TO THIS EFFECT, I FEEL WE SHOULD TEST THE WATER BY ACTING ON SOME OF THE CASES THAT YOU SENT OVER AS EXAMPLES. I AM MOST INTRIGUED BY THE ONE INVOLVING THE SLAYER. PERHAPS IF WE WERE TO ACT ON THIS WE COULD ASSESS THE SITUATION AGAIN AFTERWARDS.

I LEAVE IT UP TO YOU TO MAKE THE NECESSARY ARRANGEMENTS. LIAISE WITH THE MACHEN AS NEDED.

I HOPE TO HEAR BACK FROM YOU SOON.

PAGAELIAN SNR

Raif looked up from his minesweeper game when he heard Lena sigh. "What? No promotion?"

Lena shot him a dark look. "No. More work."

Adon groaned. "What? You've gotta be kidding?"

Lena shook her head. "Mr Pagaelian wants us to take up the Machen's old work."

"The prophecies?" Raif's eyebrows shot up. "What for?"

"Probably for another one of his crazy hobbies," Adon suggested with a snort. "OK, so what does he want us to do?"

"Take up that Slayer case," Lena replied. "See how that works out."

"And we do that how?" Adon asked wearily.

"Let me guess," Raif said. "We make nice with the big blue people?"

When Lena nodded, Adon groaned. "Oh goody."

-------------------

Haxor's mouth spread into a wide grin exposing his rows of sharp teeth when he checked the breast pocket of one of the male demon's suit jacket's that was thrown over the bed in the room he'd been given. He held up the slim black device and turned it around in his hands. It wasn't quite the Holy Grail…

But it was a start.

-------------------

Giles sighed in relief when the last customer in his store had departed. Once he'd taken a moments breather, he headed towards the door in order to lock it //Further custom be damned// he thought, //I need a cup of tea.//

But he only got as far as turning the sign around from 'Open' to 'Closed' when he saw Cordelia on the other side of the glass. Reluctantly he stepped back and let her in. "And what can I do for you?" he asked as she walked past him and into the store.

Cordelia turned around and fixed Giles with a firm look as she crossed her arms infront of her chest, even managing to seemingly flip her short hair over her shoulder. "You and I are going to have a little chat."

"I'll take a wild guess and say its not about the weather," Giles replied dryly and headed back over towards the counter. He could feel Cordelia's eyes following him and trying to bore into his skull as he walked past her.

"No, it's about why I've just spent the last hour with Ren while she cried her eyes out on my shoulder." Cordelia's gaze was fixed back on him. "You know, I thought you were different. Now I'm thinking that you really are just a guy."

Giles' jaw opened and closed a couple of times before he managed to get words out. "What in God's name are you talking about? And what about Ren? Where is she now?"

"At home," Cordelia replied. "Sleeping. Getting rest like she should, y'know, being pregnant an' all."

"She told you," Giles said quietly. He took off his glasses and began to clean them. "Did she seem alright when you left her?"

Cordelia's stance softened a little when she recognised the genuine concern in his voice. "Not really." Cordelia sounded less accusatory. "She's hurt, upset and confused. She wants to know what's going on."

Giles looked at Cordelia before he put his glasses back on. "Going on?"

"Yeah. With you." Cordelia dropped her arms to her sides and tilted her head to the side, studying Giles for a moment. "And so do I. Because I really don't want to believe you're the love 'em and leave 'em type, OK?"

"I'm not," Giles replied quickly. "Cordelia, whatever you think is going on, it's not-" Giles broke off when Cordelia suddenly staggered backwards, clutching her hands to her head. "Cordelia?"

"Vision! Oh, oh God! Cordelia staggered backwards again and bumped into one of the display cabinets. "I think it's a doozy!"

Giles rushed to her side and caught her before she stumbled again and fell. "What is it?" he asked, lowering her to the floor as he crouched beside her with her in his arms.

"Vampires," Cordelia replied, screwing her eyes shut against the throbbing pain in her head. "There's a nest... a girl… no, two girls."

"Here?" Giles asked anxiously as he held a still convulsing Cordelia. "Now?"

"No." Cordelia managed to shake her head. "In L.A. and soon. Need to call Angel… need to be there."

Giles got up; leaving Cordelia sitting on the floor as the vision started to pass. He went to the counter and dialled Angel's number on the phone. It took a couple of rings for someone to pick up and he'd got as far as, "An-" when Cordelia snatched the receiver from his hands. He just sat back on the stool behind the counter as Cordelia rattled off details and directions to Angel.

He hung his head and closed his eyes. Cordelia was right, he reasoned and also made a mental note never to reveal he'd ever thought that, well to Cordelia anyway. Giles sighed inwardly. Ren deserved to know what was slowly driving him around the bend.

-------------------

Buffy and Xander lay naked and curled around each other underneath the soft quilt on their bed as they exchanged soft, lazy kisses.

"'is is nice," Buffy mumbled sleepily against Xander's lips before he kissed her again. She closed her eyes as she let Xander's lips gently massage hers. "S'cosy."

Xander broke off his kiss and looked Buffy in the eyes when she opened them a second later. He smiled. "Well, it's s'posed to be cosy after you make sleepy love."

"Mmm, sleepy love's good," Buffy agreed, smiling back down at him. "S'just usually, we make with the wild monkey love after a good time fighting the forces of evil."

Xander started to stroke her hair. "Yeah, but, usually," he replied, "We aren't dead on our feet. The things we fight are," he added with a grin. "Usually we make it back with a spring in our step."

"Well, I had a spring," Buffy corrected him, referring to their battle with the demon and his friends just less than twelve hours ago. Buffy poked him in the chest lightly. "*You* were asleep."

"Well, I haven't flamegrilled anything in a while," Xander replied, sounding a little defensive. He added a pout for good measure. "I'll have you know it's very tiring. Especially with demons built like mutated quarterbacks."

Buffy leant forward and kissed away his pout and Xander moaned softly in appreciation. "I'd just like a little warning in future," she said when she broke away, the serious tone in her voice softened a little by her affectionate smile. "I don't want you catching zeds in the line of fire, OK?" 

Xander mirrored her smile and tone. "Promise." He wrapped his arms back around her and Buffy happily snuggled down into his embrace. "Maybe I should talk to Wills?" Xander suggested after a moment. "She might be able to give me some handy hints for keeping it up." He immediately regretted using that particular phrase when he heard Buffy snicker. Xander emitted a small exasperated sigh when Buffy then began to giggle. "Out of the gutter please, hun."

Buffy managed to control herself and lifted her head to look at him. "Sorry," she said, but didn't sound the least bit convincing. "But, anyway, wouldn't you be better asking Ren?" 

"To help keep it up?" Xander tried to sound serious.

Buffy swatted him playfully on the thigh. "Yeah, like she never did that before."

Xander played the innocent. "Well, she was the one to teach me the spell in the first place. Maybe you're right."

Buffy pinched him on the thigh this time and Xander yelped. Buffy stuck her tongue out at him, which Xander then quickly took as an invitation to suck into his mouth. Buffy groaned as Xander deepened the kiss, one of his hands creeping up her back to her head, his fingers tangling in her hair at the same time as Buffy's nails dug into his chest.

Buffy groaned again when they finally broke apart. "Ooh, can we have more sleepy love now?"

Xander cleared his throat and gave her a sheepish look. "Uh, I think I might be kinda *too* drained."

Buffy blinked. "Huh?" she said, sounding surprised. Then a 'don't be so stupid' tone crept in as she added, "You can't be." Buffy lifted the covers and glanced down… at what was staying down. She frowned and looked back at Xander who just shrugged apologetically. Buffy's eyes glinted with determination and a predatory look spread over her face before she kissed Xander back just as passionately as he'd kissed her only moments before. Her hands caught hold of his when they began to roam over her body and she pinned them above by his head as she continued to plunder his mouth.

When Buffy finally relented, she looked back at Xander. He looked thoroughly debauched. His eyes were glazed over and his kiss swollen lips were parted as he gulped in much needed oxygen. "Mmmphazzatkabibble," was Xander's incoherent response.

"I know." Buffy smiled smugly. Then she lifted the covers and looked again. "Damn." Buffy sighed, not really hiding her frustration and looked back at Xander who still seemed to be shaking off the kiss he'd just received. "OK," she stated, "You definitely need to talk to Willow about keeping it up."

Xander shot her a pained look. Buffy just laughed and a moment later Xander joined in and Buffy snuggled back against him, her head against his shoulder as she still chuckled softly. 

Xander wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin against the top of her head. Then Xander stilled for a moment, thinking. "But you've got your Slayer stamina, right?"

There was a soft rumble against his chest from Buffy's laughter. "I was wondering when you'd remember that." Buffy giggled louder as Xander dove under the covers. Then she moaned. "O-oh, you do remember that."

-------------------

"Well," Lena began, her gaze flickering back towards Raif and Adon who sat at the desk behind her before she looked back to Rojhar. "That doesn't sound too complicated. I think that we can do that."

"Why do you have to watch your intended victims first?" Adon asked, getting up and going to Lena's side. "Why not just snatch them and bring them back?"

"We like-" Rojhar broke off and paused for a moment. "We *liked*-" he corrected himself, "To see how they worked, if there was anything we could use against them. Sometimes it paid off. And they were never *victims* until they were found guilty." Rojhar looked directly at Lena. "And if you are planning on trying the Slayer's case, I suggest that you find out everything you can."

Lena's brow furrowed. "Why can't you just tell us what you found out last time?"

"Because every Machen who was there is now dead." Rojhar stated simply, although his face darkened a little. "We know very little. Only what a few insignificant Cavgor demons that were working for us and managed to get back could tell us."

"Would Haxor know anything?" Lena asked.

"Probably not," Rojhar replied. "I could ask him when he gets back."

"Gets back?"

"He's on an errand." Rojhar smiled, exposing his teeth. "I think he'll be pleasantly surprised when he gets back to find out that you're taking up our work."

"It's just one case," Lena reminded him. "Mr Pagaelian wishes to see how it works out before he makes a decision."

Rojhar just kept smiling. "But it's a start."

-------------------

__

(Later that evening)

"Ren?" Giles called out as soon he arrived home and opened the door. "Ren, I want to talk to you." Giles closed the door behind him and looked around. The place seemed decidedly empty. Giles sighed and climbed the staircase. "Ren?" he called again, listening for any indication that she might be home. There weren't any.

Giles sat down on the bed and looked around at the room. It was strange how much it had changed over time since he'd first moved in. It was pretty minimalist at first - the life of a Watcher was uncertain but when it became clear that his Slayer wasn't going anywhere anytime soon; odds and ends and been accumulated and made it more than just somewhere to sleep. And then Ren had moved in and suddenly it was *their* room and it wasn't just his things in the room anymore. The closet was half filled with her clothes, her make up and perfume sat on the dresser, the bookcase also housed her complete collection of Jackie Collins books that she'd insisted were 'novels' despite his laughter.

His gaze lingered on a framed photograph of Ren, one taken about six months ago when they'd taken a brief trip back to England. It had been January and the weather had been abysmal, which was depicted in the photo. Ren was standing on the sand of Holkam beach; she had demanded they go there so she could pretend to be Gwyneth Paltrow. She was looking towards the camera; her hands shoved into her coat pockets, hiding them from the biting wind that also made her hair fly behind her. And she was smiling.

Giles leant over and picked up the photograph from where it sat on the dresser and held it between both hands, studying it for a moment before he got up and headed back downstairs. Once at the foot of the stairs, the quiet he'd just gotten used to was then disturbed by the ringing of his telephone.

He kept the photo in one hand as he picked up the receiver. "Hello?"

Hey G-man.

"Xander?" Giles was pleasantly surprised. "Well, this is unexpected."

And not exactly a social call either.

"No?" Giles frowned. "No trouble I hope?"

Probably not, Xander replied. Buff and me had to do a bit of slaying last night. We just wondered if you knew what kind of demons we'd killed and if you knew a better way to kill them in case we run into them again.

"I take it you two are all right?"

Fine and dandy. Me and my wife are all recuperated.

Giles could almost *hear* the grin on Xander's face as he spoke and it made him a little envious. "Good." Giles sighed and placed the photo of Ren on the sideboard and walked with the phone over to his bookcase. "Alright, what distinguishing features did this demon have?"

As Xander began to describe the demon, Giles began to pull books off his shelf, setting them on his table. It was when he put the books on the table he noticed a folded up piece of paper with his name written on it propped up in the centre of the table. With Xander talking in one ear, Giles picked up the note and read it.

__

Rupert,

I'm at Willow and Tara's. Back in the morning.

Ren

Giles sat back down and tuned back into Xander, who was then telling him that the demon had three heads, the middle one of which had an oak tree growing out of it.

"Damn," Giles said dryly. "If it had been a Scots Pine I might have had it."

Funny, Xander replied. Just wondering where you drifted off to there for a moment.

"Sorry," Giles sighed, opening one of his books. "It's been a long day." Giles glanced across at the photo he'd brought down and sighed again before looking back to his books. "Let's start again shall we?"

-------------------

__

(Meanwhile…)

"It's not very big is it?" Ren's remark was immediately followed by a frustrated groan from Willow and a badly hidden smirk from Tara. "I've seen bigger balls on a gnat." 

As Tara's smirk became a fully-fledged laugh, Willow waved her hand and the glowing orb of sunlight disappeared. Willow glared half-heartedly at Ren. "I was hoping you'd be a tad more helpful."

"Willow, you know as well as I do," Ren replied, getting up off the floor and seating herself back on the couch, "That my magicks are less enhanced than when I was a demon." She shrugged. "Sorry, but I'm out of ideas. Why not wait 'til Xander gets back?"

"'Cos now she wants to get it done before they get back," Tara said as she cleared up the living room floor. "Sort of like a surprise."

"Yeah, like an extra wedding present," Willow continued as she set the ingredient jars back on the shelf. "Y'know, being newly weds an' all, they might like some extra time, y'know, boinking the living daylights out of each other…"

"And if you can provide the *actual* daylight on patrol…" Ren carried on, realising.

"Then all's well in happy coupledom," Tara finished as she took up position on the opposite end of the couch from Ren, smiling appreciatively when Willow bent down by the video cabinet.

"OK," Willow called over her shoulder and grinned when she caught Tara looking. "Do we want a chick flick or something that requires brain function?"

"Anything, so long as its not that copy of 'The Princess Diaries' I saw you hide when I got here," Ren replied.

There was a suspicious silence from both witches before Willow narrowed her eyes playfully at Ren. "Well, I'm not watching anything with Steven Seagal in it either," she shot back. "You're worse than Buffy when it comes to fight scenes." Willow grinned when Ren pulled a face at her. 

"Do you want me to choose?" Tara said. "Nothing with Julie Andrews in, I promise," she added, looking at Ren. "And seeing as how me and Willow were going for a cheer you up evening… which you weren't supposed to know about so now I'll just shut up and try and blend into the couch."

Willow cleared her throat and looked sheepishly at Ren. "It's just you seemed a little down last night and can you not be mad 'cos we made chocolate crispy treats 'specially."

Ren looked between the two, not quite sure how she was feeling. Then one corner of her mouth twitched up a little in a smile. "So you didn't just invite me up here to show me your spells?"

That earned a chuckle from Tara. "Well we did, but there was an ulterior motive."

"Sorry," Willow said meekly and gave her an apologetic shrug.

"I see," Ren said quietly. Then she sighed. "So? Have you got hot chocolate to go with the chocolate crispy things?"

"And marshmallows," Willow replied, smiling back. "I'm on it."

As Willow left for the kitchen, Tara looked at Ren and gave her a hesitant smile. "We don't want to pry," she said. "It's just we noticed that Giles was a little…" Tara trailed off briefly, "Just a little distant. We kinda wondered if everything was alright… is it?"

Ren hesitated and glanced down at the floor before she looked back at Tara. "Not really," she admitted. "But I'm not really looking to… to talk about it… not again today anyway."

Tara held a hand up. "Hey, not prying remember?" 

"Just here," Willow said, standing in the doorway to the kitchen, leaning against the frame. "With chocolate and ears."

"It's appreciated," Ren replied, smiling softly. She tucked her legs up underneath her and settled back into the cushions of the couch. "So how 'bout we put 'Shakespeare in Love' on?"

"I think I can live with that," Willow replied with a grin as she made her way back into the kitchen.

"I just pretend I can't see her looking at Gwyneth Paltrow's ass," Tara said, rolling her eyes and she went to put the tape in the VCR. "Actually, I didn't think it was your kinda film."

Ren gave Tara a small smile when the blonde sat back down. "I watch it with the hope that someone will throw a bucket of water over Colin Firth… it's a 'Pride and Prejudice' thing," Ren elaborated when Tara gave her an odd look. Then Ren smiled, almost to herself. "Plus some other memories. January to be exact." She just kept smiling when Tara gave her another curious look. "I'll tell you later."

-------------------

"I think last night must have been a fluke," Xander said before putting another forkful of spaghetti in his mouth. He then almost spat it out again when Buffy delivered a sharp kick to his shin underneath the restaurant table. "Ow," he mumbled as he hastily swallowed. "What was *that* for?"

"Have you learned nothing?" Buffy sounded a little incredulous and went to kick Xander again, but he anticipated her move so she hit fresh air. Buffy settled for scowling a little at him. "You just jinxed us."

Xander refrained from rolling his eyes, knowing that he'd probably get kicked again for it. "Buff, I think we've established that we're *always* gonna have demons around to fight," he reasoned. "I think jinxing is kinda null and void here."

"Yeah, I know," Buffy replied. "But it's the demons I want null and void around here for tonight." She pouted a little and began playing with her cannelloni. "It's our first proper night out as a married couple. I don't want to haveta wonder if I'm gonna end up using toothpicks-" she pointed to said items in the middle of their table, "-as vamp-be-gone."

"I have got a stake in my pocket, y'know."

Buffy couldn't resist it. "And I thought you were just pleased to see me."

"Y'know me hun, I've always got wood for you," Xander shot back with a grin and Buffy laughed and blew him a kiss. "And, yeah, I'm not counting our last night and our run in with the vamps and the Incredible Hulk wannabes either as a night out."

"What did Giles say they were called again?" Buffy asked through a mouthful of food.

"Um… pasty... pasta… oh, Pasturak. Native to this area and allergic to water and, um, something else, but we can still kill 'em the usual way. You have bolognaise on your chin."

"Thanks," Buffy replied, wiping her chin with her napkin. "And, I mean, seriously, who thinks up names for these demons anyway?"

"Does my face look like it belongs to someone who cares?"

"Maybe there's like a committee or maybe they all played, like, some big game of Scrabble and chose and you really don't care, do you?"

Xander shook his head and grinned at her. "As long as my wife can kick their evil asses then, no, I don't."

"Y'think we should just shut up about our dangerous life and enjoy the evening?" Buffy asked with a smile. "Gaze adoringly into each other's eyes?"

Xander reached out across the table and took her hand. "It's a beautiful evening," he said, entwining his fingers with hers. "I just wanna wine and dine you."

Buffy smiled back. "Then let's not talk shop anymore." 

An involuntary shiver went up Xander's spine when Buffy ran a foot slowly up the length of one of his calves. "OK, I think my stake just got company."

-------------------

Raif glanced out from underneath his baseball cap and towards the couple sitting in the open-air restaurant on the other side of the road from the bar he was sitting in. 

He rolled his eyes and sighed.

OK, so at least he was out of the Dimension of the Castle of Gloom, as he and Adon had dubbed it, complete with capital letters. But now, now he had to sit and watch the Slayer and her husband… and that was pretty much it. Watching was Boring - enough so that deserved capitals as well.

Raif turned over his empty shot glass and stacked it on top of his other empty glasses to finally form a pyramid.

And what the hell was he supposed to be watching for anyway? He was pretty sure the only action the Slayer was going to see that night was under the sheets with her husband, especially if the waves of arousal rolling off the two were anything to go by.

Raif shook his head and signalled to the bartender for another drink. He had a feeling this was going to be a long night.

-------------------

__

(Next morning)

Xander looked up from his magazine when he heard Buffy come into the living area where he sat; his bare feet kicked up onto the couch as he took up the whole length of it. He smiled at her, openly ogling what parts of her he could see due to the fact that her bathrobe had fallen open at the front.

Buffy caught him looking and flashed him properly before tying her robe closed again. "How come you're up so early?" she asked, going to the refrigerator and taking out a carton of orange juice.

"Honey, I think the question should really be, why are you up so *late*?" Xander replied.

Buffy set the juice on the counter and rummaged around in the cupboard for a glass. "There's no such thing as getting up late when you're on holiday, which, therefore, completely justifies my question." Buffy turned to him and gave him smug smile before adding, "And it's not like you can talk anyway, you're not even dressed yet."

"Boxer shorts are clothes," Xander stated, gesturing at his underwear and only form of clothing. "Made of cotton and everything."

Buffy pulled a face at him and then started poured herself a glass of juice before heading over to where Xander sat, taking a seat in the recliner next to him. "OK, we've got some hours to kill before we should really start packing. Whatcha want to do today?" she asked. "Beach? TV? Hot tub? Gratuitous sex?"

Xander dropped his magazine to the floor and turned on his side so he was looking at Buffy. He gave her a wide grin. "The last two together sound good."

Buffy grinned back. "Cool," she replied, getting up and setting her drink down on a side table before she went to join Xander on the couch. Xander grabbed her arm and pulled her down to him so they laid chest to chest. Buffy groaned when Xander slipped a hand inside her robe and was about to claim his lips in a bruising kiss when a loud sound from the veranda snapped their attention away from each other.

"What was that?" Buffy asked, frowning as she kept looking towards the veranda.

"Probably something fallen over," Xander said, trying to draw her attention back to him, his hand roaming again underneath her robe. "Maybe the wind caught something."

"There is no wind Xander," Buffy replied. She pushed herself up from Xander, closing her robe again as she headed over to the doors to the veranda. Through the glass she could see a chair lying upturned on the floor. Still frowning, Buffy walked outside and glanced around.

"What is it?" Xander asked, coming up behind her.

Buffy turned back to him. "I don't know, she said. Buffy glanced around again before standing the chair back upright. "My spidey sense isn't tingling but…" Buffy stepped up to the veranda railing and looked yet again at the landscape before them. "I don't know."

"Gut feeling?"

"Something like that," Buffy replied. With a moment's hesitation she hurdled effortlessly over the railing, landing neatly on the other side and in the barely there garden that consisted mainly of shrubs. "Grab something heavy," Buffy called back to Xander. "I'm gonna take a look around."

A tiny bit of a grumble snuck into Xander's sigh before he headed back inside in the search something which was presumably to whack whatever Buffy thought she might find over the head. "So much for me not jinxing us last night," he muttered, glancing around quickly. "Heavy… heavy…" He looked around, but couldn't find anything that would be easily manageable. "Looks like it'll just have to be something sharp."

Xander headed into the bedroom and grabbed his jeans from the floor and pulled them on. "I really hope she finds something," he muttered, grabbing the sword Buffy had used two nights previously on the demon they'd followed. Xander unsheathed it and swung the sword in a controlled arc. "Sex in a hot tub is not something I give up for no good reason."

=====

tbc…


	5. Part Five

****

Forever Rules : Book One

Part Five

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ren let the front door close behind her and took off her jacket, throwing it towards the couch. She ran both her hands through her hair and yawned. Her eye caught sight of a selection of books, some of which lay open, on the table. Curious, she wandered over and looked at the pages.

"Pasturak?" she murmured quietly to herself. "Around here?"

"Around Buffy and Xander actually."

Ren looked up at the sound of Giles' voice. He stood at the top of the stairs looking down at her. He was wearing black trousers and a grey sweatshirt - both of which looked rumpled, which also went for his overall appearance.

"Trouble?" Ren asked, frowning.

Giles shook his head as he carried on down the stairs. "They ran into some the night before last. Spoilt their night out apparently." He gestured to the books. "Just made some notes for our records."

"Oh." Ren held his gaze for a moment as Giles stopped at the foot of the stairs. "You look like hell."

"Well you hardly look bright-eyed and bushy-tailed yourself," Giles replied, not sounding harsh, but managing to carry affection in his words.

"I think it's the fact that Willow and Tara stuffed me full of chocolate and we stayed up 'til the early hours watching movies." Ren gave him a small smile. "Plus I'm still feeling a little nauseous. Residual morning sickness probably."

"That or the chocolate." Giles mirrored Ren's smile.

They stood together in silence for a few moments, neither of them moving, before Ren spoke. "Did you hear back from Cordelia?" she asked. "Willow said you'd called her earlier to say she'd had a vision."

"Oh, um, yes," Giles replied. "Yes, she called last night. Everything was fine. Nobody killed or anything. Nothing to worry about." Giles studied her face for a moment before speaking again. "She spoke to me briefly about you." Giles saw Ren's eye's flicker with recognition. "Said you'd spoken to her… that you were upset."

"I still am," Ren said softly, holding his gaze momentarily before tearing herself away and heading into the kitchen.

Giles watched her in silence then dropped his gaze to the floor and exhaled slowly before looking up again and following after her.

"Ren," he called softly, stepping into the kitchen where Ren had just put the kettle on to boil. "Ren, I'm sorry." Giles leant sideways against the refrigerator and waited a few seconds before she looked at him. "I'm sorry," he repeated again. "I have no excuses for the way I've been acting."

"You mean the way like you were those weeks before Buffy and Xander's wedding?" Ren's gaze was fixed on him. "Like something had crawled up your arse and died? What I thought you'd actually managed to yank out for a while during the wedding, but, oh, lo and behold it found its way back?"

Giles blinked. "Yes?"

"You mean what made you turn away from me because you were more interested in what you couldn't bring yourself to tell me about and all I wanted was for you to hold me?"

Giles lowered his gaze, wishing that the ground would open up and swallow him for a little while. "I'm sorry."

"About how I let you fool me…" Ren trailed off, blinking back tears, "Fool me that… that-"

"I love you." Giles looked back up at her.

"Exactly," Ren replied, holding his look as a tear rolled down her cheek.

Giles took a moment to process those words and when he did, the first thing he did was grab Ren's arm and pulled her to him, claiming her lips with his own. He felt Ren gasp in surprise, and she didn't kiss him back immediately, but she didn't pull away from him either. Giles put his other arm around her waist and pulled her closer, the hand on Ren's arm moved to cup the back of her head. Ren wrapped her arms back around him as she began to respond to the kiss, slowly at first then more eagerly.

Giles clung onto Ren as they continued to kiss, his fingers tangling in her hair as they kiss became ever more ardent. He was right. He had been an idiot. And what he was doing right now and how it made him feel, how having Ren in his arms and her arms around him was all he wanted for the rest of his life.

"Rupe?"

Ren's voice cut into his thoughts as she broke away from the kiss, her piercing gaze directed at him whilst their lips were barely an inch apart. "Rupert," Ren sounded a little breathless as she spoke again, before he'd even had time to respond. "I don't want you thinking," she continued, "That this means that I've completely forgiven you."

Giles closed his eyes and rested his forehead against Ren's. "What can I do?" he asked softly.

"You can look at me for a start," she replied. Ren settled her hands on Giles' waist when he opened his eyes again. "And then you can tell me what the bloody hell's been going on with you."

Giles took a breath and exhaled slowly as he took his hand from Ren's head and brushed some of her hair back behind her ear. "I panicked," he said simply.

Ren looked back at him for a moment then said, "The baby." Her statement was confirmed when Giles gave a slight nod of his head. "What?" Ren said after a moment. "You couldn't have panicked out loud?"

A ghost of a smile passed over Giles' face. "Obviously not," he replied. 

"But you're not anymore?"

"Panicking? No." Giles cupped her face with both hands. "I love you," he told her. "I never stopped loving you."

Ren's hands moved from Giles' waist to his chest, clutching gently at his sweatshirt. Ren knew that there was still much to talk about, but right now there was a question she wanted to ask: "And you're not going anywhere?"

Giles shook his head vehemently. "No." He kissed her softly, his hands still cupping her face. "But I have to know one thing," he said once he drew back. "One thing I asked you when we got together this time round-"

"I promise forever." Ren clutched tighter at Giles' chest as she pre-empted him. She looked into his eyes. "I promise."

Giles couldn't stop the smile spreading over his face and he kissed her again, sinking into the embrace when Ren raised her arms and looped them around his neck. And he knew, just as well as Ren did, that this conversation wasn't quite over. He knew that he couldn't get away with just saying that he panicked, but seeing as Ren was refusing to remove her lips from his so he could get the words out, he had to be content with the fact that Ren *wasn't* removing her lips from his. Giles smiled inwardly and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her even closer.

-------------------

"Buffyyyyy." Xander tried not to sound like he was whining. Which he was, he just didn't want it to sound like it. "There's nothing he-re."

Buffy put her hands on her hips and turned around to face her husband. She did well to stifle the giggle that threatened to bubble out on seeing the sight of Xander standing a good twenty feet away amidst the shrubbery of what passed as the back garden of the villa, while he took a few aimless swings at thin air with the sword he held.

"Maybe my fuzzy pink slippers that you're wearing scared them away," Buffy said. "Which, by the way, why *are* you wearing?"

Xander glanced down at his feet and then back over at Buffy. "'Cos you told me to hurry my ass up and I couldn't find my shoes." He paused. "You don't like them?"

"On me, yes," Buffy replied. "On my big manly man husband, no. And, honey, if you're going to use the sword to kill whatever flying bugs there are out here, could you at least use the moves I taught you?"

Xander stopped and stared at her. "Say what?"

"You were dropping your guard."

"I, what the… was *not*," Xander shot back defensively. "It was totally up."

"Nope. 'Fraid not." Buffy began to head over to him, wishing herself that she'd found something to put on her feet as the ground was beginning to bake the soles of her feet. "Sweetie, you're not going to learn if I don't tell you these things."

"OK, 'Oh Great Bathrobe Wearing One', why don't you tell me what I'm doing wrong?"

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Well, you can stop pouting for a start."

Xander pulled a face back at her before losing the petulant look and letting Buffy take hold of his wrist of his sword holding hand. She stood infront of him and raised his arm to where she wanted it.

"OK, hold it there," she said, letting go of his arm. "Just relax your shoulder just a little… OK, now move it down slowly at that angle." Buffy just nudged his arm gently in the right direction. "Now, see, this is good."

"*This* is what I *was* *doing*," Xander griped as Buffy moved around him, apparently studying his movement.

"You weren't," Buffy replied. "Trust me."

"Was too."

Buffy levelled her gaze at Xander. "Fine." She stepped back. "Go on and show me again then."

"Fine." Xander mimicked Buffy's voice. "I will then." Xander began to move again, raising his arm and then bringing the blade down in a swift arc. He was about to take the sword in both hands and repeat the move the other way when suddenly Buffy moved and blocked him, forcing his free arm to the side.

Xander tried to counter, turning in the opposite direction to Buffy, but Buffy moved with him and blocked him once more and this time grabbed hold of his weapon bearing arm and twisted it back just enough so he couldn't move it. Xander tried bringing his other arm back around again but Buffy moved quickly, bringing her knee up to his hand, jarring the sword out of Xander's clutches. She caught it before it had barely began to fall and ducked one more counter attempt from Xander before letting go of his arm and spinning on her heel, taking the sword in both hands as she did so and then brought the sword around in an arc with lightening speed, only stopping when the blade was millimetres from Xander's neck.

Buffy held his look, noting at least that his eyes showed no flicker of fear even as she held the blade still. 

Buffy raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to one side slightly. "See?"

Xander stayed silent, his expression was unreadable as he brought his hand up to Buffy's and gently pushed her arms and the sword back down. He stepped closer to her and Xander's gaze flickered briefly over her face before he looked back into her eyes.

Buffy waited for him to speak, and then shot him a questioning look when he didn't. "What? Are you gonna sulk now?"

Xander's brow crinkled a little. "No."

"Good," Buffy replied. "'Cos I don't want you getting too arrogant."

There was a flicker of acknowledgement in Xander's eyes, but he wasn't letting it go just yet. "Are we forgetting who can chargrill demons at fifty paces?"

"And are we forgetting who had to carry who back to the car because they were so drained they couldn't stand?" Buffy shot back. She saw Xander's frown deepen and he looked at the floor. Buffy let go of the sword and pressed it into his hand. "But I'm not forgetting who has the man she trusts most in the world by her side when she goes into battle."

Xander looked up and saw Buffy smiling warmly at him. Xander's expression lightened a little and he leant forward enough so that his forehead was resting against Buffy's. "Where else would I be?" He paused. "You meant me, right?"

Buffy answered by swatting him on the thigh. "Idiot," she said with a smile and Xander let out a small chuckle. "But *my* idiot." She kissed Xander softly on the lips before the pulled apart. "C'mon," she said. "Let's head back in."

"We finished out here?" Xander asked as he glanced around.

Buffy took one more look around herself. "Yeah," she replied. "If anything was here, well, it's not now." Buffy slipped an arm around Xander's waist and leaned in against him when his free arm fell across his back, his hand settling on her waist. "But I think we should keep an eye out," she added as they began to walk back to the villa.

"So, what d'ya want to do now?" Xander asked, idly hitting the tops of the shrubs with the blade of the sword. "'Cos I'll tell you now, sparring was not top of my list for fun things to do on our honeymoon." He paused. "Unless it was a prelude to sex of course."

Buffy looked up at him and grinned. "Well, of course." Then she pouted a little. "Xan?"

"Hmm?"

"Can you carry me? My feet are really hurting now."

Xander stopped and looked at her. Buffy was still pouting at him. He sighed and rolled his eyes. "C'mon then."

Buffy beamed. "Thank you hon- oh, *hey*, what the *Xander*!" Buffy squealed when instead of finding herself being swept up into Xander's arms, she was unceremoniously draped over his right shoulder, her face almost level with his ass.

"Don't worry Buff," Xander assured her, glad she couldn't see the grin on his face as he carried her back. "I promise this time I won't be dropping anything."

-------------------

Willow hummed as the afternoon sun beat down on her as she skipped up the steps that led towards Giles and Ren's building and then across the courtyard. Once at their door, Willow knocked once and called out, "Hey Ren?", before she walked straight in. "Ren you left-"

Willow broke off and replaced her words with a high pitched squeaking sound at the sight of two people laying asleep and entwined together on the couch. Two people who looked very naked, but thankfully anything that needed to be covered was - just - by a throw that had previously been over the back of the couch.

Unfortunately, the high pitched squeak caused one of the couple to wake and Willow found herself suddenly frozen to the spot as she met Giles' gaze. Giles' eyes widened a little in shock and he made a subtle attempt to rearrange an area of the throw where it was beginning to slip and he turned Ren (who still appeared to be asleep) so it was just her back that was visible.

To help, Willow clamped a hand over her eyes. "Sorry," she apologised earnestly. "Um, phone." Willow rummaged in her pocket and pulled out Ren's cell phone and held it up. "She left it."

"Then please leave it and go," Giles instructed calmly.

"Going," Willow replied quickly, spreading her fingers just enough so she could barely see out and set the phone down on the nearest flat surface. Willow turned and took a few quick steps towards the door before she turned back to Giles, her hand still over her face. "Y'know, I didn't know you had a tattoo there too."

"*Go*!"

"Gone," Willow squeaked and spun on her heel and dashed to the door again, almost tripping over an item of clothing on the floor before she finally made it out of the door, slamming it shut behind her. Willow managed a few steps before she had to sit down on a low wall as she burst into a fit of giggles.

-------------------

Ren was already beginning to stir before the door slammed. "What's going on?" she mumbled sleepily.

"We had a visitor," Giles replied. He draped an arm over Ren and pulled her closer and smiled as she snuggled against him. "Willow brought your phone back."

"Oh. S'nice." Ren opened her eyes a little and found Giles staring right back at her. Ren gave him curious look. "What?"

Giles smiled back at her. "Just looking." He began stroking a few fingers through her hair and sighed. "And thinking."

Ren relaxed into his touch. "About what?" she asked.

"Well, we're going to have to get a bigger place for one thing," he replied, placing his hand as much as he could on Ren's abdomen. "For this little one. And definitely a place with security system that even Willow can't get through."

Ren chuckled as she placed her hand over his and then laid her head against his shoulder. They laid in a comfortable silence for a few moments before Ren realised that Giles was studying her again. She looked up at him. "What?" she asked with a small smile. "Bigger car now?"

"No," Giles replied, smiling back, although his eyes seemed to show concern. "You know, you do still look a little pale. Do you still feel tired?" he asked. "I mean not just from the, um-" he cleared his throat. "I mean-"

"Just sleepy," Ren murmured. "Like I said, residual morning sickness." Then she smiled. "And maybe a little from the, um-" Ren cleared her own throat, not out of shyness, but good-natured mocking of her lover.

Giles shot her a pained look, then smiled. He brushed his fingers over Ren's hair, watching her as she closed her eyes and snuggled closer to him. After a few long moments he closed his own eyes, sighing with contentment as he draped an arm over Ren's back and fell into a light doze with her.

-------------------

__

(Meanwhile…)

Lena raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "You *ran* *away*?" She pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes briefly. "I do not believe it."

Raif squared his shoulders in defence. "I did *not* run *away*," he stated indignantly. "It was a tactical retreat." Raif glared at Adon when the other demon snorted with laughter. "I nearly made my presence known," Raif carried on. "The Slayer heard me when I knocked something down and they came out to investigate. I teleported as far as I could within my range and then waited."

Lena gave a slight shake of her head then sighed. "Very well then," she said, bringing her laptop nearer to her, preparing to start typing. "What else?"

"I waited for a few hours then went back and watched," Raif replied. He sat down in the nearest chair to him in the office. "Another thing," he continued, frowning a little. "Are we sure they're human?"

"Well they were when we ran the checks on them before sending you out there," Adon said. "Why'd'ya ask?"

"Because I don't think it's possible for creatures of that shape and anatomy to get into the positions that they did," Raif replied. "And copulate. At least I think that's what they were doing," he added thoughtfully. "And in a hot tub."

Lena looked up from her computer and stared at him. "You *watched* them have *sex*?"

Adon smirked and Raif hid his smile as he replied. "Well, you did say observe them at all times."

Lena gave him an exasperated look. "You two are not taking this seriously are you?"

"Oh come on Lena," Adon kicked his feet up onto the desk. "You know as well as I do that this whole thing is ridiculous."

"And you're only putting up with it," Raif carried on, "Because you're up for promotion."

Both Adon and Raif smiled self-satisfied smiles when they saw Lena visibly bristle. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and gave them both an icy look. "Fine," Lena said snippily. "It's idiotic." Then she gave them an insincere smile. "But don't you think that the sooner you get back to them, the sooner this will all be over with?"

Raif glared back at her and muttered something under his breath before getting up. He straightened his suit jacket and pulled the J'polt 2X out of his pocket. Then an evil smile crossed his lips and he thrust out the device and quickly programmed in the numbers, opening up a portal in the middle of the office.

Adon managed to grab on to his desk before the swirling winds blew him from his seat. He shot a poisonous look at Raif before he realised that the blow back from the portal opening had sent an unsuspecting Lena straight off her chair and into an undignified position on the floor, at which the two male demons exchanged grins before Raif walked through the portal.

Lena was just getting over the shock of landing on her backside and she pushed her hair out of her face just as the portal closed. She looked up to see Adon offering her hand. Glowering at him, she kicked him in the shin, sending him hopping out of the way as she got up off the floor herself. Straightening her jacket and smoothing down her hair, Lena stalked over to the intercom, ready to push the button to call one of the two blue demons. 

But Rojhar came through the door before she even had the chance. "What was that noise?" he asked, entering the office.

Lena walked back from the door and sat back behind her desk. "Raif came back to check in with information," she explained, getting back to her laptop. "And now he's gone back again."

"He opened up a portal in the office," Adon elaborated, rubbing his shin as he sat back down. "He just went back."

"What news did he bring?" Rojhar asked. "The Slayer?"

"Nothing to write home about so far," Lena replied. "We're still studying her. Although," she added, "You might like to know that she married the young man you were also after that first time."

"I care not." Rojhar shrugged with disinterest. "What of the guardian demon that was with them?"

"That's proving kinda difficult," Adon informed him. "Seems, according to our company's detection people that is, that there is no demon matching her description anymore."

"We have a mortal matching her description though," Lena continued, gesturing to the computers. "We're doing some background research." As the blue demon acknowledged her with a silent nod, Lena looked at him curiously. "Where is Haxor?" she asked. "We have not seen him for a while."

"He is visiting his sister," Rojhar replied smoothly, knowing his words were half true. Haxor was visiting his sister. She just happened to be one of the clan who were organising the mass exodus of the dimension. "Jenna is ill," Rojhar continued, lying wholly this time. "Haxor went to the caves to be with her. He will be back soon."

"So long as he doesn't break the curfew rules," Lena remarked, shooting a pointed look at Rojhar. "Part of the deal that you two get to stay here and look after the place, remember"?

Rojhar narrowed his eyes a little. "We remember," he said, letting no emotion show in his voice. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be attending to some other business." With that, Rojhar stepped back out of the office, letting the door slam shut behind him.

Adon glanced over at Lena as she began to get back to work. "Somebody's not a big blue happy bunny."

"Neither would you be if you had your home and livelihood taken away," Lena met his gaze. "Now, are you going to help me with this or not?"

"Fine," Adon grumbled, getting up and dragging his chair over next to Lena's. "And what other business does he have anyway?"

"I'm sure it's nothing important," Lena replied. "Now get to work. You have an Aurora demon to find remember?"

-------------------

__

(Later that day)

"Hey Buff?" Xander called out as he wandered back into the bedroom after his shower, only to find Buffy standing infront of two open and empty suitcases on the bed. "Um, Buff? Watcha doin'?"

"Packing," Buffy stated simply before heading over to the chest or drawers and lugging out one drawer completely and then emptying it in one go into one of the suitcases.

"OK, not that I don't admire your style of packing," Xander remarked, "In fact I find it one of your more endearing features, it's just… why the hell are you doing it *now*?"

Buffy turned to look at him just as she had another drawer half way out. "Um, because we're leaving tonight?" she answered, sounding a little patronising as she stated the obvious to her husband. "Can you find some clothes to put on before I pack your stuff?" she continued, then paused briefly as she looked him up and down. "Actually, don't bother. You're fine as you are. It'll save time later." Buffy went back to pulling out the drawer.

Xander just stared at her as she emptied the contents of the drawer before putting it back. "Honey, I'm naked. And so are you. Don't you think you're-" Xander stopped and thought for a moment. "Wait. What the hell am I getting worked up about? We're both naked, c'mere."

Buffy shrieked and then giggled as Xander closed the distance between them and pulled her into his embrace, claiming her lips in a passionate kiss. "Xan-der!" she exclaimed after a few moments. "You're still all damp." Buffy tried to wrestle, albeit half-heartedly, out of his grasp. "C'mon, we have to pack."

"Yeah, but why now?" Xander whined, reluctantly letting Buffy go and stepping back. "Like you said, we're not going 'til tonight."

"And if we pack now," Buffy was sounding slightly patronising again, "We'll have all the entire rest of the day to do other things." She shot a pointed look at Xander. "*Lot's* of other things."

"Lot's?"

"Lot's and lot's and lot's." Buffy grinned, emptying the final drawer into the suitcase. She put it back and then bundled up several items from the dresser into her arms and put them into the case. "Now just find something you want to wear to go home in."

"Why can't we have it now?" Xander pouted as he watched Buffy pluck a thong back out of the case and put it to one side. "We can have some now, then pack, then some later."

Buffy turned to face him and her shoulders sagged a little when she saw the plaintive, puppy dog expression he was wearing. She knew it was entirely put on, but even after all this time she still couldn't ignore it. 

And, after all, she had done *some* packing.

Buffy smiled seductively and sauntered over to him and saw Xander's pout turn into a grin. "Now what am I gonna have do to satisfy my man, huh?" she said, running a hand down his chest. "Hmm… let's see…" and with that she sank to her knees.

-------------------

"So they're going to be bringing the Slayer back here?" Esta said, stroking his chin thoughtfully as he turned to the two other Elders, Vellen and Vable, that sat to his left around the granite table. "Now this begs an interesting question." Esta put both his hands palm down on the table and looked back to Haxor who stood waiting patiently with Jenna and D'nal either side of him. "Do you know how far along they are in their plans?" Esta asked.

"I'm not sure, sir," Haxor replied. "Rojhar has told me that they have sent one of the demons that came the other day to watch the Slayer, but I have not been at the castle to know if he has returned yet."

"But they *do* plan to bring the Slayer back?" Vable looked for clarification. Haxor nodded dutifully. Vable looked to Esta. "Maybe some could stay?" he suggested.

"No!" Vellen protested, banging his fist down on the table. "We're not staying. Everyone goes."

"But the Slayer-" Vable tried to interject.

"Will pay at the hands of those who have taken over," Vellen stated, his hand still clenched into a fist. "If that Pagaelian wants to take this up as a idiotic hobby, then let him." He glanced around at the others. "Isn't that what it turned into for us?"

Esta paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. "Maybe Vellen is right," Esta said finally. "We let our success as mercenaries cloud over what our ancestors worked for." He sighed. "We have to think of ourselves now. We go somewhere new and maybe we can build up our respect again." 

"Exactly." Vellen let a small smile settle on his lips. He looked at the three standing silently before himself and the other two elders. "Haxor, you go back to the castle and let us know whatever you find out. Jenna and D'nal, you take care of the troops here. Prepare for a total move."

"We'll need to bring in Yester and Malax," Jenna stated as Haxor left. "Also, can I just ask… where exactly will we be going?"

"The codes work the same with the J'polt we replicated as with the old Denzion we used," Haxor added. "We have many places to choose from."

"Then I'll make a suggestion," Vable said, looking at the others. "I propose that, seeing as how *we've* decided that we leave the Slayer to her fate here, we try and seek revenge on the others that helped her."

"I think they plan on bringing the male with her," Haxor informed them. "I'm not sure about the guardian demon."

"The Cavgor said there was a witch," Vable added.

"You want to go to the Slayer's dimension," Esta stated. It wasn't even a question. "To the Hellmouth." He looked at Vellen who nodded in agreement. "Fine. I'm sure the other elders will agree. Go," Esta instructed Jenna and D'nal. "I want to see if we can get a scout group together."

-------------------

Xander still hadn't managed to shift the stupid grin from his face. It had been half an hour since Buffy had obliged him and then he'd obliged her. Twice. Now she'd sent him out to the jeep with a couple of bags and instructions to start tidying up when he got back.

Once outside the front door, Xander shouldered one of the bags so he could put on his sunglasses - making sunglasses and deck shoes the only things he was wearing. He let himself enjoy the feel of the sun against his skin for a moment as he looked up toward the sun, squinting at it's brightness even behind his shades. Xander took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before starting down the steps towards the jeep, blinking away the sunspots that danced a little infront of his eyes.

He'd just finished dumping one of the bags on the floor in the back of the jeep when he heard a noise from behind him; the sound of the baked ground being scuffed by shoes. Xander turned around, expecting to be confronted by Buffy, but instead found himself almost face to face with someone who wasn't even human, let alone female.

"What the fuck?!" Xander exclaimed loudly, automatically shifting into a defensive stance.

The demon blinked momentarily in shock before it seemed to gather it's senses and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "_Merde_." before it vanished into thin air.

Xander stared at the spot where the demon had been for a second before he blinked himself back to the present. He threw the remaining bags into the back of the jeep haphazardly and hurried back inside the villa.

"Buffy!" Xander called out. "Buffy!" When Xander didn't get an answer straight away, he went jogged through into the bedroom. "Buffy?!"

"What?" Buffy emerged from the ensuite bathroom clutching a towel around herself and her hair was slightly damp and clinging to her face. She gave him a puzzled look as Xander began searching for his clothes. "Xan?"

"I just had a run in with a demon outside." 

Buffy's eyes widened. "*What*?!" She wrapped the towel more firmly around herself. "Are you sure? Are you OK? Where is it now?"

"Yes, yes and I don't know." Xander answered each one of her questions in turn as he pulled on some underwear and grabbed a pair of jeans that he'd rescued from Buffy's packing spree. "I was putting the bags into the jeep and I heard a noise. Turned around and there it was and then just as quick, there it wasn't."

"It disappeared?" Buffy tried to clarify as Xander continued to get dressed; buttoning his jeans and pulling a white t-shirt over is head. "How? Did it run? Did you see where it went?"

"It was like it vanished into thin air," Xander replied. "Just *pfft*. Gone."

Buffy's brow crinkled. "That doesn't sound like one of those from the other night," she said. "What'd it look like?"

"Uh, taller than me, but not by much," Xander replied. "Human looking, but had little horns here," Xander pointed to just above his temples, "and it had tattoos on it's face. Little ones over it's cheeks." Xander stopped and looked at her. "And I don't know if it's definitely gone yet either," he told her. "So, if you got *dressed*, we could go look."

A little shiver went down Buffy's spine as it always did whenever there was any sign of dominant Xander. Buffy's jaw still set a little though. "I thought it went pfft."

"Yeah, but it could have pffted back by now," Xander replied, throwing Buffy her jeans that she'd left out at before he began to put on his trainers. "Look, I'll go and check outside," he continued as he headed towards the door. "You get your ass in those jeans and come out and give me a hand."

Buffy stared after Xander as he left. "OK," she said quietly to herself as she quickly began to look for underwear. "I know I definitely preferred the other kind of tongue lashing I got earlier."

-------------------

Raif was watching for a safe distance when he saw the human male exit the villa again - this time fully clothed. Raif kicked himself for not being careful enough, although, in his defence he thought, he had still been slightly overwhelmed by their zeal to pleasure each other.

Raif shook his head and sighed then stepped back quickly behind his hiding place when the male looked over in his direction. Raif berated himself again. What was he going to tell Lena? Was it really going to make that much difference if the Slayer knew something was going on? After all, it wasn't as if they knew *exactly* what was happening. Raif could make a case to Lena that at least this way they would now know what to expect from a Slayer on her guard as no doubt she would be when they wanted to take her and her husband.

He waited until the Slayer's husband became more interested in checking out the other side of the villa before teleporting himself to the opposite side. Through a window, Raif saw the Slayer hastily buttoning up her jeans then pull a blue tank top over head and chest before rushing outside.

With a grunt of effort, Raif jumped up and caught hold of the edge of the railings that formed part of the balcony under which he now hung. With another grunt he hauled himself up and over the railings and then stood on of the chairs to help him get up onto the roof.

Once on the tiles, he crouched down as the Slayer walked into view around the back of the villa. He wasn't going to run away this time. Not that he had the first time mind you. That was a tactical retreat. Or something like that. Raif squinted against the sunlight as he watched the man join the Slayer and Raif saw him shaking his head and said something while he gestured for the Slayer to check around the side of the house where Raif had just been. The Slayer nodded and left while the other human started back into the house.

As the Slayer got nearer to him, Raif moved more into the centre of the roof out of her sight and crouched down again. It was interesting to see how each of them took charge, Raif noted. He had assumed the male would automatically defer to the Slayer, but Raif had seen different. //It'll be interesting to find out// he pondered, //Just exactly why this 'Xander' acquired special attention from the Powers that Be in the first place.//

-------------------

Buffy looked carefully around as she made her way down by the side of the villa. She couldn't hear anything, just the sound of the windchimes by the backdoors as they tinkled in the breeze. Buffy sighed heavily, enough so that she managed to blow a lock of hair from off her face. She stopped underneath the balcony and put her hands on her hips as she looked around.

It wasn't like earlier that day when there was just something that have her the wiggins; Xander had *seen* something and Xander didn't just slip into what she had dubbed his 'militaristic mode' *and* ignore her practically naked for no good reason. And Buffy was completely ready for any hint of danger. She was honed, her senses tuned into all her surroundings; her muscles tensed as her body coiled, ready for her to spring into action.

There was just one thing that might be a problem. 

She was incredibly horny to boot. 

Buffy turned and watched Xander through the window. She could see he was on his guard as he began to search through the downstairs rooms of the villa. Deciding that she should probably check out the upper rooms, Buffy shook herself out from allowing herself a lingering look as Xander bent down to do something. Buffy jumped up and caught hold of the bars of the balcony above her. Effortlessly, she pulled herself up and swung herself up and onto the balcony.

Then she stilled. Something had just kicked off her Slayer senses big time. All thoughts of wanting to pin her husband to the floor and screw his brains out disappeared. For the time being. Buffy turned and looked up at the roof, listening for the sound she thought she'd heard before.

And there it was again. 

Somebody was on the roof. 

And whoever it was wasn't moving around too much, but it was enough so Buffy could tell which side of the roof from her they were. Silently she stepped to the left side of the French doors that lead out onto the balcony and stood almost face to face with the white stucco wall before reaching up and jumping with catlike grace to grab the guttering. Buffy pulled herself up just enough so that she could peer over the edge and up the slight slant of the tiled roof.

She couldn't see anything at first so she pulled herself up a little further, pulling back almost immediately when she spotted the demon. It was crouching and it's back was to her.

And it was wearing a suit.

//OK. This is new// Buffy thought to herself. //And seeing as how it's made the effort, it would be rude if I didn't introduce myself.//

-------------------

"Ooof!" 

It was about a second too late when Raif heard the sound of movement behind him. He landed back on the roof, albeit five feet away from where he'd been, after having the Slayer pick him up by the scruff of his jacket and throw him.

"Who are you and what do you want?" was what Raif heard the Slayer say as he shook himself from his daze.

"Um…" Raif tried to blink away the dancing spots of white light from his eyes. 

Apparently his answer wasn't good enough and he found himself face to face with an angry Slayer as she closed the distance between them quicker than he would have liked and then hauled him up by the front of his shirt with one of her hands. The other arm was pulled back, the hand curled into a fist and poised to strike if the occasion arose.

"Well?" The Slayer raised an eyebrow expectantly.

Raif groaned inwardly. This was not a good situation to be in. Normally, he would have teleported straight out, but he couldn't do that while he was attached, as it were, to another being.

"Sightseeing?" Raif smiled weakly.

That remark earned him a broken nose.

The Slayer pulled back her fist and scowled at him. "Try again."

-------------------

Xander took one more cautious glance around the main area of the ground floor of the villa. His brow crinkled a little as he was feeling a little antsy about the lack of demon activity. Had he just stumbled across a demon that was just simply passing by… their villa in the middle of nowhere where the Slayer just happens to be. 

//OK, scrub that// Xander thought. //But then, if it was interested in Buffy, where it is now? And why didn't it attack straight off? Hello? Naked human, pretty vulnerable I think//.

Deciding that he'd let Buffy finish checking the outside of the villa, Xander scratched at his jaw, making a mental note somewhere in his brain that he needed a shave, and he walked over to the telephone that sat on the table behind the couch. Buffy had said she hadn't called the airline before she'd come out, and Xander really wasn't in the mood now to see if the demon was going to come back. If it didn't, well, they weren't going to be here.

Xander found the airline's number on a scrap of paper they'd left by the phone. He punched in the number and has gotten as far as about five rings before he jumped out of his skin when something large landed heavily on the ground outside by the veranda.

Dropping the phone back down in the cradle, Xander rushed out to the veranda to investigate. What he found was a dazed, suit-wearing demon with tattoos on his face rolling around on the dusty ground groaning.

"Look what I found honey," Buffy said as she somersaulted down from the roof after the demon and landed more gracefully than the demon had.

"Nice. Now what do we do with it."

"You say _au revoir_," Raif managed to groan out before he teleported.

Buffy groaned loudly in frustration and kicked at the dusty ground where the demon had lain, still hoping that her quarry hadn't just disappeared on her and had only turned invisible.

"I hate it when they do that," she grumbled, realising that the demon had indeed vanished. 

Xander saw Buffy begin to look around. "You wanna check if he's still here?" he said. "I mean, it's kind of a rule of thumb that demons don't happen upon us for no reason. Couple that with the weirdness that had me outside in boxers and furry slippers earlier…" he trailed off. "I'm thinking maybe that demon wasn't just here for the panoramic views."

"I'll do another scout around," Buffy replied. "I don't think he's coming back anytime soon, but better to be safe than sorry." She headed out into the sparse garden. "You call it in to Giles then see how quickly you can get us out of here." Buffy turned back briefly and saw Xander give her a nod before he headed back inside.

Buffy looked back up to the roof again, but saw nothing. She jogged back over to where she'd jumped on to the balcony a short while earlier, but this time she followed the path around to the front of the house, only to find it demon free.

Running a hand through her hair she turned around slowly on the spot, glancing up to the roof when she faced the front of the house again.

"Come out come out wherever you are," Buffy called out softly in a singsong voice. She sighed when there was no sign of activity whatsoever. "That almost never works anyway."

Buffy took a quick tour of the uninvestigated side of the villa, but once more found it deserted. She continued around to the veranda at the back of the house and entered through the open doors just as Xander was putting down the phone.

"Anything?" he asked. When Buffy shook her head he continued. "Giles says he'll start checking it out as soon as he can untangle himself from Ren without waking her," Xander told her. "I think there he gave me more information there than I wanted to know."

"We're not the only ones with a love life," Buffy reminded him. Then she pouted a little. "But it's not fair we have to cut our honeymoon short."

Xander closed the short distance between them and placed two fingers underneath her chin, tilting her face up to his. "I've got three words for you, honey." Xander grinned. "Mile. High. Club."

"And I can't think of anyone else I'd rather get airplane sink imprints in my ass for." Buffy grinned. "C'mon, you call the airline and I'll finish packing and then let's go home, huh?"

-------------------

"Well… this is… interesting." Esta sat back in his seat, or what passed as a seat as it was actually a hollow hewn out of the rock. He rubbed at his forehead, deep in thought. "This definitely puts a new outlook on things."

Jenna looked towards Vellen who sat in his own 'seat', his fingertips templed underneath his chin. "Hax said they just came straight out and asked himself and Rojhar," she said. "I really think that this is an opportunity that we shouldn't miss."

Esta's eyes flickered back towards her. "It doesn't matter what you think," he pointed out. "The Elders make the decisions here."

Jenna had the sense to look contrite. "Sorry, sir. I just meant-"

"I know what you meant," Esta interrupted her. "I understand your desire."

"It's a desire that we all have." Vellen murmured quietly.

Esta turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "I thought you wanted to leave her to the fate of Pagaelian?"

"They want our help to deal with the Slayer," Vellen replied. "They specifically *asked* us for our-" he smiled, exposing all his sharp teeth, "-expertise."

Jenna allowed a smile to settle on her lips at Vellen's apparent change around. "D'nal has plenty of… expertise… in these matters," she remarked. Jenna caught Vellen's eye. "His brother was on the last attempt at the Slayer. I'm sure he wouldn't mind a chance to exact revenge."

Esta sighed heavily. "Then what do we do about our scouting mission? If we were to loan D'nal and some of the others to Pagaelian, it would seriously dent our chances of success when we get to the Hellmouth."

"I'm sure Jenna is quite capable of leading the scouting mission." Vellen turned to the female warrior. "Unless she would like to assist the Pagaelian crowd?"

Jenna paused and looked between the two Elders; Esta was looking at her expectantly. The smile stayed on her lips and she squared her shoulders. "I can take the scouting mission." Jenna hesitated after Esta nodded in acknowledged. "I'd also like to take Haxor for my second in command."

Esta nodded again. "If he wishes." Esta stood. "Vellen and I will talk with the other Elders and decide who will assist Pagaelian. Consideration will be given to those who lost someone to the Slayer and her colleagues."

Jenna bowed slightly to both Elders. "I'll tell Haxor the news."

Esta turned to Vellen as Jenna left. "What about those left behind at the castle? How will they follow us out of this dimension?"

"We'll leave another copy of the J'polt," Vellen replied. "They can join us once they've finished with the Slayer."

=====

tbc…


	6. Part Six

****

Forever Rules : Book One

Part Six

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now half dressed in the grey sweatpants he been wearing earlier before he'd been divested of them by Ren, Giles sat at the table in his living room and flipped back over to the page he'd just looked at.

And sighed.

It was the penultimate page in the fourth large tome that he'd perused since Xander had called a couple of hours earlier with the news of the demon at the villa. Unfortunately that particular page was about as helpful as the others that he'd turned over in his search that had been filled with descriptions and images of demons. He had more books to look through of course… there were always more books.

Giles looked back at the two sketches he'd made of the demon's face from Xander's description. One was a hasty scribble whilst he'd been on the phone, the other that he now held in his hand was more carefully drawn. The face outline and hair were that of a human and Giles was pretty sure the sunken eyes and the ridge at the base of the chin were more or less accurate. He wasn't too sure about the size of the horns, and the tattoos that Xander had said ran from the nose across the cheek and then down the side of the face, Giles had left as small black smudges.

Giles closed the book infront of him and placed in on top of the pile he'd already looked at before leaning back in his chair. He held the sketch up before him and stared at it.

"What are you and what do you want with them?" he murmured softly. And as he expected he got no answer. With another sigh Giles set the picture down on the table and got up, heading towards the kitchen.

He'd got just got the point of switching the kettle on to boil when he heard a soft murmur coming from underneath the bundle of covers on the couch. Giles turned around just as Ren poked her head out from underneath the throw that he'd lain over her.

She looked a little disorientated for a moment before catching sight of him standing in the kitchen. "What'ya doin'?" she mumbled sleepily, pushing hair out of her face as she sat up, hugging the throw around her.

"Making tea." Giles gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry. Didn't mean to wake you."

"S'okay," Ren said mid-yawn. "Don't mind losing my pillow." She smiled at Giles as she got up. "Much, anyway."

"I wouldn't have moved if it wasn't necessary," Giles told Ren as she shuffled into the kitchen, still holding the throw around her. He reached out and slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her close before planting a soft kiss on her forehead.

Ren smiled at the kiss and then raised an eyebrow. "Necessary?"

"Buffy and Xander had another demon," Giles explained. "This time at the villa. It would appear that this one showed a little more personal interest in them. They're alright," he added when he saw Ren frown a little. "It got away. Disappeared into thin air apparently."

"Not another Pasturak then?" Ren remarked.

Giles shook his head. "I'm not sure what it is," he said as he moved away from her and back into the living room. "Xander gave me a description over the phone." He picked up the sketch he'd made and then handed it to Ren as she followed him. "It's humanoid and around six and a half feet tall. The black smudges are some kind of markings."

Ren began to study the picture. "Markings?"

"Um, tattoos," Giles replied. "Xander wasn't able to give too much detail."

"Might be tribal," Ren suggested, frowning a little at the picture. "Anything else?"

"Apparently it wore a suit. Armani." Giles saw the contemplative look on Ren's face as she studied the sketch. "What is it?"

Ren shook her head. "I don't know… but-" she broke off and began to chew on her bottom lip. "I don't know… something's niggling."

"Well, it's more than I've been getting," Giles said with a sigh, nodding his head over to the books on the table. "I've faxed a copy over to Willow and Tara. Asked them if they can check through some of their books."

Ren handed the sketch back to Giles. "What are Buffy and Xander doing now?"

"On the next flight home," Giles replied. "They called from the airport to say they'd managed to get on a flight that had some cancellations. They should be in the air now."

-------------------

Buffy looked over the top of her magazine that she'd admittedly been holding a little too high infront of her face, and wasn't even reading, before quickly ducking her head again when she saw the couple across the aisle and one row down looking at her and smirking. And also the couple infront of the smirking couple, the greasy haired youth infront of them and, Buffy discovered when she dared look again, the air stewardess who was coming up the aisle towards her.

Buffy flushed crimson and turned to Xander. She scowled when she saw he'd drifted off to sleep. She rolled up her magazine and smacked him hard on the arm with it. 

Xander started awake. "Wha'huh?" He looked at her, puzzled, and rubbed at his arm where she'd hit him. "What?"

"Everyone is still looking at us," she hissed, hitting him with the magazine again. "This is all your fault."

"*Excuse* *me*," Xander hissed back, his eyes darting around at the other passengers, "But I wasn't the one moaning my name so loud that everyone heard."

Buffy's eyes widened and her mouth opened and closed a couple of times before she spoke. "How is that *not* your fault?" she said incredulously through gritted teeth. "*You're* the one who tried to nail me to the damn bathroom wall!"

Xander grabbed the magazine as Buffy attempted to hit him with it again and used it to pull her closer as she still had a good hold on it. "You told me to."

Buffy's face was only inches from Xander's and she'd have had to be blind to miss the heat in his eyes. But Buffy wasn't giving in just yet. "We got *applauded* when we went back to our seats," she reminded him, keeping her voice down.

Xander's voice was impossibly low. "And?"

Buffy swallowed hard and she could feel her heart beating quicker in her chest. "*And* I'm *really* *mad* at you."

Xander leant forward and whispered in her ear. "Gonna spank me?"

Buffy swallowed hard again. "You evil bastard." She drew back from Xander and looked into his eyes again to see he hadn't taken her comment to heart and instead saw the mischievous glint in his eyes mixed with unhidden lust.

"You married me," Xander pointed out, raising an eyebrow.

"Evil." Buffy leant closer to him again.

"To the bone-mmph-" Xander was cut off when Buffy grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled him the few inches left between them and claiming his mouth in a bruising kiss. There were a few catcalls as Xander responded as ardently to the kiss as Buffy had initiated it, but Buffy and Xander were too lost in the moment to care. Buffy's fingers twisted in Xander's hair and Xander's hand went from Buffy's arm down to her thigh.

"Which bone?" Buffy mumbled against his lips when they finally broke apart for oxygen.

"Take a wild guess," Xander grinned, stroking his fingers through her hair. He caught the eyes of the first smirking couple over Buffy's shoulder and grinned. "Honeymoon."

The couple rolled their eyes before going back to whatever it was they were doing before and there was a muttered, "Typical." from the air stewardess as she passed them.

Buffy kissed Xander more softly this time before removing his hand from her thigh and taking it in her own as she snuggled up against him as much as he could and laid her head on his shoulder.

"I still can't believe they applauded," she muttered softly. Buffy elbowed Xander gently when he just laughed softly in response. "Shut up."

Xander just chuckled again and slipped an arm around her shoulder. He turned his head so he could place a kiss on her temple. "It's not like we didn't deserve it. After the effort we put in…"

Buffy elbowed him again, but smiled this time. She tilted her head up and caught Xander's eye. "Well… at least I don't have airplane sink imprints in my ass."

"But I do."

Buffy giggled and they kissed again; Xander kissing her gently on the forehead before Buffy settled her head back on his shoulder. "Think we'll get in trouble?"

"Don't know," Xander replied. "Maybe if someone complains. Luckily we didn't have kids on this part of the flight."

Buffy's brow crinkled. "And we're supposed to be responsible adults."

"Well, we save the world a lot," Xander pointed out.

"Uh huh, OK. But do we want to tell our kids that their mommy and daddy go at it in airplane bathrooms?"

"Well, I wouldn't probably wouldn't use the words 'go at it' for one thing." Xander received another elbowing. "But, seeing your point. Curbing of sexual escapades might be in order." Xander paused. "Kids? As in the plural?"

Buffy tilted her head up so she could look at him again. "You don't want the plural?"

Xander smiled. "I want the plural, Mrs Harris."

-------------------

After sitting back at the table for ten minutes now after showing Ren the sketch of the demon, Giles was now making steady going through yet another dusty tome while Ren was in the shower. He picked up his cup of tea and took a sip, grimacing a little when he realised it was decidedly lukewarm. Giles got up with the purpose of making another cup when suddenly the bathroom door opened abruptly and Ren emerged, soaking wet and clad only in a towel with her long, red hair plastered to her scalp.

There was a determined look on her face, and she barely glanced at Giles as she headed past him and directly towards the table he'd just been sitting at. Giles looked on in confusion and a slightly stunned silence as Ren proceeded to rummage through the papers on his desk, finally grabbing the sketch he'd made and setting it on a relatively empty area of the table. She then grabbed a pencil and began to draw in the bottom right hand corner of the piece of paper.

"Um…" Giles began, peering over her shoulder to see what Ren was drawing. It looked like a fan with something scribbled in the middle. He then realised that's Ren's hair was beginning to drip on the book he'd been reading and he stepped to the other side of her and pulled it away. It might not have been a vastly interesting book, but there were only twenty of them in existence. "Ren?"

"Damn it," Ren them muttered and started to scribble out her attempt and began again in the another corner, this time seeming to take more care in her work. "This," she said after a moment, carefully pencilling three close together feather-like items, "Is what was niggling me." Ren sketched in a thin band at the base of the three 'feathers'. "I've seen it. With this demon."

"Seen it where?" Giles asked as Ren drew a letter 'P' in the centre of the drawing. "What is it?"

"I don't know," Ren admitted, studying the picture of the demon for a moment before looking back at Giles. "The demon, I've seen one before. A while ago, a few decades, I'm not sure. But I don't know what it is." She looked back at the picture and tapped the sketch she'd just made with the tip of her pencil. "This… this is what it flashed. Like an ID," Ren elaborated when she saw Giles raise an eyebrow. "I was working for this Kessemon demon," she continued. "Nice enough guy. He had money 'cos he did well on the stockmarket. He was also completely paranoid that someone was after that money, so he hired me. Thought an Aurora demon would scare anyone away." Ren paused to hitch up her towel as it was slipping. "Anyway, I was at one of his board meetings and this guy, and a demon like *this*-" Ren indicated the sketch, "-arrives and wants to see someone else at the meeting. I was in charge of security and this demon shows me this ID card."

"And this drawing was on it?" Giles tried to clarify, setting down his cup of tea and picked up the sketch to study Ren's drawing.

Ren nodded. "I challenged him, I mean, as if I'm supposed to know what it means, but the guy he wants to see says it's alright and goes off with Mr ID here."

"Is this a fleur-de-lis?" Giles squinted a little.

Ren went to stand by Giles' side and slipped a damp arm around his waist as she looked with him at what she'd drawn. "About ninety percent sure that's what it was," she said after a moment. "And that's a 'P'." Ren pointed at the letter with her free hand.

"Yes, I got that," Giles shot her a sideways glance after noting the teasing tone in her voice. "Thank you dear." He paused and then raised an eyebrow. "Ninety percent?"

"Well, it was a while ago… it could have been something else," Ren admitted. "OK, so, not a *lot* of things look like a fleur-de-lis, but still… giving myself a margin of error here." Ren glanced at him and shrugged a little, a hint of a smile played on her lips. "Hey, I'm two hundred and five." She took the sketch from Giles' hands and set it on the table before moving infront of him and wrapping both her arms around his waist, pulling him close. "I should be lucky it's my mind that goes before my body."

"I want you just the way you are," Giles replied. And then he paused. And blinked. And went over what she had just said.

Ren tilted her head to one side as Giles started to get a slightly distant, almost contemplative look in his eyes. "What?" she asked.

Giles focused back in and met her curious gaze. It was all he could do not to laugh out loud. "It's so stupid," he said, managing only a hint of a chuckle. "*I'm* so stupid."

Ren just stared at him. "OK. You've lost me."

"I hope to God, I haven't." A smile crept onto Giles' face as he reached up and cupped Ren's face with both hands, unable to stop the small bubble of laughter that escaped.

Ren frowned, but mostly in confusion. "What's so funny?" she demanded. "Rup-mmph-" Ren was cut off when Giles slid his hands onto her hair and kissed her full on the mouth. Ren barely had time to respond before Giles had pulled back. She gave him a perplexed look. "*Rupert*," she managed to get out in full this time. Ren tried to follow Giles' gaze as he began to study her again and she pushed herself away from him a little. "I wanna know what's so funny."

Giles stepped back out of Ren's grasp and an almost strangled laugh erupted from him as he sat down on his seat at the table. He looked up at Ren apologetically as another laugh followed soon after and he put his hand to his mouth in an effort to try and smother the rest that followed.

Ren folded her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes at Giles. She was beginning to get annoyed. "Fine. Don't share the joke. I'll finish my shower." Ren turned on her heel and had stalked away only two steps before there was a strong hand on her arm pulling her back.

"Darling, it's not you." Giles had managed to curb his small fit of giggles for the moment. "Not… not in the sense that I'm laughing at you, at least." Giles pulled her closer. "It's something that I've…" he trailed off, swallowing down another burst of laughter. "Something that I've done… and I look back at it now and-" Giles smiled warmly at her "-and I can't believe I never even thought… that it never even crossed my mind…"

"That you're not making any sense?" Ren looked impatiently at Giles.

Giles cleared his throat and gave Ren another apologetic smile. "Sorry. It's just…" He couldn't help another laugh. "You… cradlesnatcher…"

"You *are* laughing at me!" Ren huffed and pulled out of his grasp once more. "I'm still mad at you anyway, y'know. You're not helping yourself a whole lot here." Ren managed to avoid Giles' outstretched arm when he reached for her as she walked away.

She'd gotten as far as the bathroom door when two arms enveloped her from behind and stopped her from going any further. "Rupert, let me go," she instructed, more than just a trace of annoyance edged her words. If he was going to laugh at her then he could at least bloody well do it when she wasn't anywhere near to hear.

"I told you I wasn't ever letting you go." 

Giles' soft words tickled Ren's ear and she swivelled her head so she could look at him. Her blue eyes met his grey-green ones and she felt her heart swell when she saw all the love pouring out of them. 

Giles turned Ren so that she was facing him properly. "I'm not laughing at you," he said seriously. "I'm laughing at me and my stupid insecurities." Giles saw the perplexed look settle on Ren's face as it had done a few moments before. Giles took a long breath and exhaled slowly. "And I've just realised that I never… never said this properly earlier… and I should… should say…" 

Giles felt himself drawn in Ren's intense gaze and he realised that the tickling sensation on his stomach was Ren's fingertips as they drew abstract shapes over his skin. He closed his eyes as Ren covered his lips with her own and drew him slowly into a passionate kiss.

When they both relented, they drew back only enough so that their lips barely touched. Ren opened her eyes and met Giles' gaze again. She smiled and murmured against his lips, "Marry me."

Giles' breath caught in his throat and it was a couple of moments before he was able to speak. "That was supposed to be my… I-I mean, I was going to-" he broke off and swallowed hard, telling himself to //just answer the bloody question man//. "Um, yes?"

Ren's smile broke out into a grin about the same time as Giles'. She slid her arms up around his neck and they fell into another passionate kiss; Ren sinking completely into his embrace as Giles wrapped his arms tightly around her. 

A few moments later, she giggled into the kiss when she felt her towel being tugged down. Ren broke away and grinned at him, one eyebrow raised. "Wanting to celebrate, are we?"

"Entirely," Giles replied, kissing her again. "We could have our own, um, personal party right now-" another kiss "-and then something larger with cake and balloons when Buffy and Xander-" another kiss "-get back." Giles was about to kiss her yet again when he paused. "Ah."

"What? Oh." Ren sighed when she realised too. "Demon."

"Bloody typical," they muttered together.

-------------------

"You needn't look so pleased with yourself," D'nal remarked as Jenna sat down on a rock across the cave from him.

"It's my first mission," came Jenna's curt reply as she picked up a whetstone. "Don't tell me that you're not pleased about your new little adventure."

D'nal scowled at her, knowing that she was right. "I just wouldn't get too sure of yourself, that all," he said. "It's only a scouting mission. Not a battle."

Jenna just smiled thinly and dragged the whetstone across the blade of her dagger. "I'm still in charge."

"Well I'd keep an eye on Malax if I were you," D'nal warned her. "You know what he's like when he gets a whiff of bloodshed."

"I think I can keep him in line," Jenna replied, examining the blade of her dagger before looking across at D'nal again. "And Haxor will be there to help."

"Yes, I'm sure he'll love taking orders from you." D'nal ignored the scowl from Jenna and then indicated the weapon she was busy sharpening. "I think you'll need something a little bigger than that on the Hellmouth."

"D'nal? Shut up." Jenna gave her fellow demon an exasperated look. "Why don't you just concentrate on the motherload that you just got landed, OK?" She shot him an amused look. "Or are you angling for handy hints on what to do with a captive Slayer?"

"I think I can handle it." D'nal gave her a dark look. "Don't worry, I'll make sure she won't forget her stay in this dimension in a hurry…" he eyed the blade that Jenna was now holding up to the light and smiled slowly. "With any luck, I'll be the last thing she ever sees."

-------------------

After a while of fruitless searching though dusty tomes back home, Ren had made the suggestion that maybe there would be some books or scrolls at the store that could be useful. 

Ren yawned as she pulled her hair back behind her and tied it into a ponytail. With an air of determination she surveyed the contents of the Magic Box. Then she sighed, her shoulders sagging. To her, the place never seemed big until you actually had to look for something yourself.

She headed over to one of the bookshelves and took down a copy of 'Talismania', which, she guessed, was apparently some poor soul's attempt at humour for a book that contained information about anything your ever wanted to now about talismans. But it was the fact that it *did* have practically every known talisman, magical or not, in it that made Ren make it the first of her pile.

Ren groaned despondently as she looked at the fifteen hundred-page book. "I knew we should have stayed in the shower." Ren sighed again as she scanned the bookcase again, searching for books that she and Giles didn't have back home. She'd taken only two more books and added them to the pile and was about to take another when the sound of her phone ringing startled her.

She shoved the book back onto the shelf and grabbed her cell phone from her jeans pocket. She smiled in surprise when she saw on the screen that the caller was Xander.

"Hey honeymooner," she said into the phone once she'd pressed 'answer' and then heard Xander chuckle at the other end.

Hey yourself, Xander replied. How's the search going? I just called Giles and he said you'd found something.

"Uh, sort of," Ren replied. She sat down on the stool behind the counter. "I've seen that type of demon somewhere before and there's a drawing of something it had that might be helpful." Ren gave a short sigh. "Which is why I'm now at the store going through the stock."

'Talismania'?

"Yup."

Ugh, sorry. But, hey, at least I can give you a chance for a break. Me and Buffy sorta ran out of cash, so how'd'ya like to pick us up from the airport?

"Oh gee, can I? Can I really?"

Funny, Xander replied to Ren's feigned enthusiasm. But it's either that or a fifteen hundred-page book.

"I'm not carrying your bags."

-------------------

__

(A short while later)

"Xan? I'm not a packhorse, OK?" Buffy stepped back as Xander tried to hand her his overnight bag. "I'm taking mine and that's it."

"Yeah, but it's got your straw donkey in it." Xander set the bag on the floor.

Buffy gave an exasperated sigh. "Fine. But I'm just swapping it for one of mine." Buffy swung one of her bags off her shoulder and down next to Xander's. "It's got those fluffy pink slippers in it you love so much."

"Please tell me he just wears them on his feet," another voice said.

Buffy turned around to see Ren only a few feet away. "Yeah, but even that was scary." She smiled warmly at the other woman. "Thanks for coming," Buffy said. "We would have got a cab, but there was an, uh, incident…"

"And a teeny fine," Xander added, raising his hand and putting his thumb and forefinger together. "And the ATM machines weren't working."

"Incident?" Ren enquired, beginning to walk alongside Buffy and Xander as they picked up their bags and started to head out of the arrivals lounge and towards the exit. "What did you do?"

"We kinda carried on our honeymoon on the plane," Buffy replied, glancing sheepishly at Ren.

Ren laughed. "Excellent."

"Apparently some people didn't think so." Xander then grinned. "But personally, I kinda thought-" he broke off when he caught Buffy's warning look. Xander cleared his throat. "So, this demon. What exactly have you found?"

Ren glanced at Buffy. "He's so well trained. I'm impressed."

"It's all in the look," Buffy replied. "I'm working on another variation that'll get him to make me breakfast in bed whenever I want."

"Funny." Xander rolled his eyes when Buffy just turned to him and grinned. Then he pouted a little. "You hardly ever make me breakfast in bed."

"Aww, is my little Xandie sulking?" Buffy teased.

"And you said *I* was evil," Xander shot back.

Buffy just gave him an affectionate smile and only had to wait a second before she got a matching one back from Xander. "Come on," she said, tiredness creeping into her voice. "Let's just get home. I need my own bed to sleep in and Mr Gordo as well as you to cuddle." Buffy looked to the redhead who was now walking a couple of steps infront of them. "Ren? Think we can put the research on hold 'til the morning?"

Buffy waited for a whole hearted agreement from Ren, but the other woman didn't reply and instead began to slow, one hand on her stomach and an almost distressed look on her face.

"Ren?" The smile dropped from Buffy's face when she saw the redhead double up in obvious pain. Buffy dropped her bags to the floor and hurried over to her, managing to catch Ren before she slipped to the floor. "Ren, what is it?" Buffy slowly lowered Ren to the ground and knelt with her. "What's wrong?"

Ren seemed to struggle for breath as her other hand clutched against Buffy. "Hurts," she said weakly as Xander crouched down beside them both. Ren's eyes closed tight as she tried to swallow back a cry of pain. Her entire body felt like it was losing all it's energy; not just slipping away, but like somebody was ripping it out one bit at a time. She felt herself go limp in Buffy's arms and when she managed to force her eyes open again, all she could make out around her were blurred shapes and muffled sounds. Her throat and chest were now burning and she had to struggle to get air into her lungs.

The last thing she heard was Xander's muted voice as she drifted into unconsciousness.

-------------------

Giles hurried through double swing doors and into the ER and continued on in haste, dodging past two orderlies pushing a trolley before he finally made it to the reception desk. "My fiancée," he rushed out anxiously to the young girl behind the desk. "She was brought in. She… she collapsed."

"What's her name?" the girl asked as Giles broke off for breath.

"Ren." Giles fretfully ran a hand through is hair. "It's Ren." Giles took a couple of deep breaths as the receptionist began checking through papers on her desk.

The girl frowned. "I don't see..." she looked up again. "Last name?"

"Um..." Giles began to search through the jumbled thoughts in his brain to remember which one of her ID's Ren was using now. "It's Smith," he said finally, ignoring the quizzical look due to his pause from the receptionist. Then his eyes widened a little and added quickly. "Try under Serena. Serena Smith."

Giles waited impatiently while the girl searched, tapping his fingers on the desk for what seemed like an eternity before a cry of, "Giles!" caught his attention and he looked to his left to see Xander waving at him.

"No matter," he said to the receptionist and hurried over towards Xander.

"She's through here," Xander said, immediately turning as Giles got to him, heading back down the corridor. 

"How is she?" Giles asked anxiously.

"I don't know," Xander replied, "We haven't seen her, not really. They just told us to wait when we tried." Xander stopped and nodded towards the double swing doors infront of them. "She's through there."

Giles placed a hand on Xander's arm in a gesture of thanks and also indicating to stay where he was. Giles then went straight through the doors, ignoring the 'No Public Access' sign on them, and headed straight into the resuss room. He looked around anxiously, searching the busy room for any sign of Ren.

Deliberately failing to make eye contact with the nurse who had spotted him, Giles began to make his way over to some of the trolleys that had doctors and nurses crowded around them. For a split second he thought he'd seen her, but, with a grimace, he realised that it was another woman with a head injury, making her hair almost the same colour as Ren's. 

"Sir," came a firm voice behind him. "Sir, you're not supposed to be in here."

Giles turned to see a male nurse standing infront if him. "My fiancée was brought in," he told the nurse. "I want to know how she is."

"OK." The nurse gave him a sympathetic smile. "If you give me her name then I can find out. But, I'm sorry, you'll have to wait outside."

"No, I want to see her," Giles replied, starting to look around again. "I'm not going 'til I see her."

"Sir." The nurse had moved infront of him. "Sir, the doctors are very busy, OK? We've had a minor RTA, so look, like I said, if you give me her name, then I can find out how she is."

Giles looked back at the nurse, meeting the other man's gaze, noting, with as much amusement as he could muster at that moment, that the other man flinched slightly. "I want to *see* her," Giles repeated firmly.

The nurse seemed to have got some of his bravado back. "I can call security."

"Nathan, is there a problem here?" Another man, dark haired and tall, now flanked the nurses left side. A doctor, Giles guess, if the white coat and frazzled expression were anything to go by.

"This gentleman wanted to see his fiancée who was brought in," the nurse, Nathan, replied.

The other man looked at Giles. "What's her name?"

"It's Ren," Giles replied. "Although she's probably under Serena Smith. I want to see her."

"I got that," the man replied. "But you can't just barge in here."

"Hey, did I hear my patients name over there?" a male voice suddenly called out from over in the far right corner. "That'd better be my consultant."

"No. It's the fiancé," the other man called back.

"Then bring him over," was the reply. "Maybe he can help answer a few questions."

"Well you heard the man," the other doctor said, but Giles had already started off. The doctor followed after him while the nurse was called over to help with another patient. 

"Is she OK?" Giles asked before he'd even got within a couple of feet; but once he saw her, he knew. "Oh God."

Her skin was alabaster and her eyes were closed and her arms and legs laid limp. There was an oxygen mask over her mouth as she seemed to be breathing in short, ragged breaths and her top had been cut open so they could attach her to an EKG monitor.

"Well, no. As you can see, she's not," the doctor who had called out replied. He was in his early thirties with dirty blond hair that almost fell into his eyes. "Hi, I'm Dr King," the blonde doctor looked up at Giles. "This is Dr Yansen," he nodded at the doctor who had followed Giles over.

"BPs improved. 100 systolic, but she's still a little tachycardic," the nurse attending reported.

Dr King nodded and then rubbed the back of his hand against his forehead. "OK, OK." Dr King looked at Yansen. "Miles, can you repeat her meds for me? And Janice," he looked at the nurse, "Go and find out where my damn consultant's got to, yeah?"

Giles took Janice's place as she hurried off. "Is she conscious?" he asked.

Dr King shook his head. "Hasn't regained it since she first collapsed." Dr King checked her heart monitor. "Does she suffer from any illness' that would be helpful if we knew about?"

Giles stared at Ren's unnaturally pale face. "No. I- Wait." Giles then looked back at King's expectant face. "She fainted a couple of nights ago," Giles told him. "She said she was just tired. She's pregnant. Ten weeks."

"Hey, who's got the Smith woman?" another voice came from the other side of the room.

"Here," Dr King replied, raising his hand. He then looked at Giles. "Maybe you should wait outside now." Dr King turned from Giles and spoke to the doctor who was now heading over. "We've got a female, twenty seven, pregnant, respiratory difficulties and we can't seem to stabilise her heart rate. No blood loss."

Giles felt himself being tugged back as the two doctors continued to talk and looked away from Ren to see the nurse, Janice, with her hand on his arm.

"There really isn't anything you can do, Mr Giles," she told him gently. "She's in good hands here. We'll let you know any developments."

-------------------

After stepping to the side to allow a doctor into the room, Xander pressed his face back against the circular window in the door. He saw the doctor who'd just gone in go over to where Giles was standing. He couldn't see Ren, but he could see the expression on Giles' face and he didn't like it one bit.

"Honey?"

Xander looked to his left to see Buffy standing at his side. Xander gave her a tired smile and dropped a soft kiss on top of her head. "Giles is here," he told her. "Did you get hold of the others?"

"Mom's coming when she can. I couldn't get hold of Willow and Tara, but I think that's probably best, y'know? Until we know what's wrong." Buffy looked through the doors. "Have they said anything?"

Xander shook his head. "No, I-"

"Giles." Buffy gently cut in on her husband as she spotted the older man who had just exited behind Xander. "Giles, what's happening?"

"Um… I'm not sure," Giles answered distractedly, looking back through the window into the room. "They're going to let us know."

"They didn't say anything?" Xander said anxiously. "But they're doctors. They're supposed-"

"Xander..." Buffy said quietly, nodding over at Giles who was wearing a pained expression. "Not now, OK?" She gave his arm a gentle squeeze when he looked chagrined and then she stepped over towards Giles who was still looking through the window, apparently not hearing Xander anyhow. "Giles?" she said softly. He didn't respond at once so she put a hand on his arm. "Giles?"

"She was so pale," Giles murmured. He closed his eyes and sighed. "I've never seen her…" He took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "She was fine earlier. She was fine." Giles opened his eyes and stared through the window a moment more before walking slowly down the corridor towards a handful of plastic chairs. He sat down in a vacant seat and let his head fall back against the wall, his eyes closing again.

Buffy and Xander followed him over, Xander letting Buffy take the only other seat near Giles. "Y'know, I'm sure she'll be OK," she told him. "Ren's strong."

"Yeah," Xander agreed. "Whatever it is, I'm sure Ren'll kick its ass."

Giles opened his eyes and turned just his head towards Xander. "I appreciate your conviction, Xander." He gave the younger man a brief smile. "But I think you should both know that Ren's not the only one in there I'm worried about." Giles saw the puzzled expression on both their faces and sighed. He put his glasses back on. "She's pregnant."

Both Buffy and Xander were silent for a moment. "Woah," Buffy said finally.

"Pregnant?" Xander stared at Giles. The other man nodded imperceptibly. "Woah," Xander mirrored his wife's answer, "That's… woah."

"I know." Giles closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the wall again. "I know."

Buffy and Xander exchanged apprehensive looks. Xander ran a hand through his hair and sighed before taking a seat on the floor beside Buffy's chair. As Xander leant his head against her thigh, Buffy dropped her hand to Xander's head and began to play absently with his hair. She looked up the corridor and towards the doors separating them from their friend.

And they waited.

-------------------

Jenna watched the group of warriors before her as they broke off into groups after she'd spoken to them. There were ten, not including herself and her brother Haxor - who was already back at the castle. Ten demons she'd hand picked for their fighting skills, their instincts in battle and most importantly their ability to follow orders.

Jenna smiled to herself as she watched the two male mage-warriors in the corner of the large cave she'd chosen for preparing her troops. D'kal and Deshe might not have been the largest of the clan of warriors but they certainly were the most experienced of the mages. They were going to be her trump cards. Jenna wasn't stupid enough to go into an area like the Hellmouth with unknown magical elements without some kind of back up.

Jenna's attention then became drawn to a group of four demons whose discussion had grown loud as they boasted of their exploits. Yester and Malax were two of the demons and they were the most experienced of any of the other warriors with the exception of herself and Haxor. The other two in the group were Malax's brother's, Mieka and Maeki - twins. They'd had field experience too, although they specialised in reconnaissance.

Three other group of four warriors had now joined in the discussion. The only one who declined was Henni, the only other female warrior who would be going. Henni caught Jenna's gaze and headed over towards her.

"I know for a fact that Mieka is exaggerating about the mission in Sri Lanka," Henni said in a low voice as she joined the other female. "I was there and there were only two of them."

"I wouldn't worry about it," Jenna replied. "He won't be facing anything like that where we're going."

"Just humans you say?"

Jenna confirmed with a nod. "Some will be strong; they'll be able to fight." She smiled, exposing her sharp teeth. "But they won't be a problem."

"Only if you don't run into anymore Slayers."

Jenna turned and scowled at D'nal who'd appeared behind her. "I won't have a problem with Slayers," she assured him firmly. "Especially if you do your job and take her before we get there."

"I'll be fine doing my part," D'nal retorted, ignoring the disdainful look Jenna gave him. He then looked around at the unit Jenna had put together. "Not a bad selection," he admitted grudgingly. "And you have D'kal and Deshe. Good move."

"I *do* know what I'm doing." Jenna was still scowling at him. "What are you even doing here?" she continued. "You should be assembling your own group."

"Oh, the Elder's decided they were going to pick my group," D'nal replied breezily. "So I just thought I'd come and annoy you." He patted her on the shoulder and started to walk off. "Job well done I think."

-------------------

__

(Some time later…)

"Hey Giles, I think this guy's for us," Xander said as a doctor approached them, the doctor's pace having quickened once he'd spotted Giles.

Giles opened his eyes and saw Dr King heading towards them. Giles got to his feet and beheld the other man anxiously. "What's happening? Can I see her yet?"

"You can see her in a little while," Dr King replied. "We're going to be moving her in a few minutes-"

"But she's alright?" Giles demanded to know. "And the baby?"

Dr King hesitated as he noticed the other two curious faces just beside Giles, but as the other man didn't seem to mind, he continued. "We've managed to stabilise her," Dr King informed him. "And we're confident that she hasn't… miscarried."

Even as he heard small sighs of relief from Buffy and Xander, Giles dared not feel at ease just yet. "What exactly does 'stabilised' mean?" he asked carefully. "Is she awake?"

Dr King was about to reply, but there was a sudden influx of patients and visitors making their way along the corridor. Dr King took Giles' arm and led him to one side, just slightly away from Buffy and Xander. "I'm sorry," the doctor said. "She's still unconscious. We had to sedate so we could intubate her." Dr King paused briefly. "Mr Giles, your fiancée is still very ill. As I just said, she's having trouble breathing; not being able to control the amount of air into her lungs. There also seemed to be a problem with her heart being able to maintain a steady rhythm but we've managed to control that now too. There's a cardiology specialist that can see her in half an hour after he comes out of surgery. Meanwhile we're going to do a scan to see how the baby's doing. That's why we're moving her to another room in a few minutes," Dr King explained. "It's easier to bring obstetrics to her at the moment than the other way around."

Giles was silent as he took this in. "Do you think it's linked?" he asked finally. "I mean… how she is… to the pregnancy?"

"We think it's a possibility, yes," Dr King replied. "Especially as it seems to have come out of the blue like this. We've checked her medical records and according to those there's never been any sign of anything like this before. Do you know if there's any history of heart problems in the family?"

Giles shook his head. "No… no, I mean I don't think so."

"OK. Well, if you can think of anything, let us know," Dr King replied. "I'm now going to be with her when they move her and if you give us about ten minutes to get her, well, settled in, then I'll send a nurse to come get you and you can sit with her. I also don't see any reason why you can't be with her when they do the ultrasound." Dr King smiled. "It's her first one I believe?"

Giles nodded. "Yes. Yes, it was… it was supposed to be Tuesday," he answered somewhat distractedly; too much going on in his head to be completely focused. Giles mustered as much of a grateful smile as he could, not feeling particularly cheery at present. "Thank you."

Dr King smiled back. "I don't think there'll be too many problems in her recovery. Ren seems to be a strong woman."

"She is," Giles replied absently, his head still swimming slightly. He thanked Dr King as the other man took his leave. Giles closed his eyes and sighed heavily. "So why is this happening?" he asked himself softly. Giles felt a hand on his back and he turned to see Xander. His eyes met the younger man's and he could see his concern reflected back at him. "I don't understand."

"Neither do I," Xander replied quietly. "But the doctors seem like they've got a plan. C'mon, sit down and let them do whatever it is they've gotta do and then you can be with her."

Silently, Giles went back to his seat, or more be it gently manoeuvred there as Xander's hand still rested on his back; the simple gesture from the younger man was comforting as Giles still struggled to process what the doctor had told him. "I just don't understand," he said again after a moment, looking across at Xander who had taken the seat next to him. "How can she have a heart problem?"

"I don't know Giles," Xander said with a small sigh. "But, y'know, maybe it's not that big," he added, sounding hopeful. "I mean, he didn't say it was anything major."

"Yeah," Buffy agreed as she perched herself lightly on Xander's lap. "Maybe it's just something that'll get better by itself. Y'know, real quick."

"Maybe," Giles said quietly. He ran a hand through his hair. "I just don't understand why, that all. Or even how."

"Well maybe Ren might be able to shed some light on the whole thing when she wakes up," Xander suggested. Giles sighed and nodded but didn't say anything. Xander gave the older man's shoulder a comforting squeeze. "Did you want anything while you're waiting?" Xander asked. "Tea? Something pretending to be coffee?"

"No. I'm fine," Giles replied. "But thank you."

"OK." Xander then kissed his wife's shoulder. "But I think I'm gonna get something to drink. That coffee might be sludge, but it's strong sludge." He kissed Buffy's forehead as Buffy took his seat. "You want?"

Buffy shook her head. "I'm fine."

"OK, I'll be back in a few." Xander stretched and yawned before he walked off down the corridor to where the vending machines lived.

Giles watched Xander walk away and sighed, feeling a little guilty. "How long have you two been up?" he asked, turning to Buffy.

"A while," Buffy admitted, fighting the urge to yawn herself. "It was a long night with those first demons and I don't think we really caught up. And before you say it," Buffy added quickly seeing that look in Giles' eyes, "It's gonna be pretty pointless suggesting that we don't have to stay."

Noting the firm expression on her face, Giles realised resistance was futile. Of course, he didn't think if it came to it he would want them to leave anyway. He sighed and gave her a smile. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Buffy replied. "You're both family, remember?" she continued with a smile. "I don't let just anybody give me away, y'know."

Giles felt the flush of pride in him as he returned the smile that Buffy had given him. "Anytime."

"Yeah, well, I think you'd better hold *that* thought," Buffy told him. "Not really planning on marrying anyone else, y'know. Ever." 

The corners of Giles' mouth twitched just a little as he saw Buffy's gaze drift down the corridor to where Xander had just disappeared around a corner. "Barely a week," Giles said softly. "Barely a week."

Buffy turned back to him and smiled before looking down at her hand. She began to play with her wedding band, twisting it slowly around her finger. "I know." Buffy looked back up at Giles. "So what about you, huh? 'Cos unless my super hearing deceived me, that doctor said 'your fiancée'."

Giles smiled fondly. "He did." His expression then fell a little sadder. "Actually it was just this morning…" Giles trailed off and looked at the floor, falling silent for few moments. He looked up at Buffy when she put a hand on his arm, giving it a comforting squeeze. Giles found himself smiling again as he remembered the look on Ren's face when she asked him that morning. "She, um, proposed to me."

"Aww, that's so sweet." Buffy put her arms around Giles the best she could considering their positions, and hugged the other man tightly. "Congratulations Giles. For the both of you." Buffy pulled back. "And then there's the other 'woah' bit."

"Yes. Yes, I'm still a little, um, floored by that myself," Giles admitted. He sat back in his seat and studied his hands. "It wasn't exactly something we'd planned." Giles looked back at Buffy. "But I'm so… so… awed by the whole…" he trailed off and the fond smile reappeared on his lips. "Do you know, I can't actually think a word to describe how happy I am."

"Well, I think you're gonna be a great dad," Buffy told him. "Trust me. I know." Buffy hugged him again. "And they're both gonna be fine. I just know it."

Even though his ribs were beginning to protest under Buffy's strength, Giles returned the embrace. "Yes. Yes they are."

-------------------

Holding a plastic cup of dubious looking black liquid in one hand, Xander examined the change he held in his other. "Dammit," he muttered under his breath. He eyes the vending machine full of snack food enviously. "Not even enough for a candy bar." As if on cue his stomach growled. "Should've made sure we ate on the flight before we joined any clubs."

Xander glanced around the surrounding area to see if he was going to attract any attention. Nobody seemed interested in him so he mimed dropping his change into the slot and then pressed a couple of numbers on the selection pad at random. Xander's gaze then fixed on a row of candy and after a couple of moments the tray began to rotate slowly and a bar of chocolate fell into the tray at the bottom. As if by magic.

Xander felt a little guilty as he retrieved his prize, for both taking the bar like that and using magic to do it, but Xander inwardly told whoever might be watching that there were important things to worry about at the moment. Pocketing the bar, Xander walked over to the bank of phones near the reception desk. He set his coffee on the ledge by the nearest free phone and then cradled the receiver between his ear and shoulder as he stuck his one and only quarter into the slot and dialled.

"C'mon… pick up Will… Tara…" Xander sighed as he just continued to get a dial tone. He put down the phone just before he knew the answerphone would kick in and collected his quarter. Xander sighed and took a sip of his coffee, grimacing at the taste but almost immediately taking another because he hoped the caffeine would keep him more awake. He'd just begun to head back when someone called out his name. Xander turned to his left and saw Joyce heading over towards him. He smiled. "Hey." 

"How is she?" Joyce asked, embracing Xander in a one armed hug, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek as she did so. "Buffy sounded so anxious on the phone."

Xander hugged Joyce back as best he could with his hands full. "She's looking better. Well, better than she was." Xander then explained everything the doctor had said to Giles.

"But it's so out of the blue," Joyce stated when he'd finished. "I just can't believe it."

"I know," Xander replied. "She's never sick. Not like this."

"And pregnant too," Joyce added. "That's just… well, I mean, I just thought that you and Buffy would be the first to… y'know…"

"I know." Xander then smiled. "Don't worry Joyce. You're still gonna get grandkids to fuss over."

"Well, good." Joyce smiled back, taking the arm Xander offered her as they began to walk. "And I notice there was a plural in there."

Xander just grinned back at Joyce and was about to reply before he looked back up the corridor and saw that Buffy was sitting by herself. His grin faded and he left Joyce's side and took Buffy's hand as his wife got up to meet them. "Did they come and get him?" he asked.

Buffy nodded. "He's only been gone about a minute. They've just moved her to a side room off the ER for now. I said we'd wait here." She leaned up against Xander as he wrapped an arm around her waist and then smiled tiredly at her mother. "Hey mom."

"Hey sweetie." Joyce kissed her daughter on the cheek. "Xander's filled me in. How's Rupert taking it?"

"Coping, I think would be the best word," Buffy replied. "Worried, would be another one."

"Well it's not surprising." Joyce sighed. "And what about you two? Didn't I hear on the grapevine you'd had some trouble when you'd been away?"

"Oh just a bit," Buffy sighed. "C'mon, sit down and we'll tell you all about it."

-------------------

Ren looked as still and pale as she had when Giles had first seen her. Giles stood by the side of Ren's bed surveying the equipment she was hooked up to. There was an IV line running from her arm and she was still attached to the heart monitor, although her sweater had been removed and she was now dressed in a hospital gown. The tube had been removed from her throat but she was wearing an oxygen mask and her breathing still sounded poor.

Giles slipped his hand into hers and stooped down to plant a kiss on her forehead. "Hello darling," he murmured softly, his lips still lingering against her skin. "Only me." Ren didn't stir but Giles hadn't expected her to. He kissed her once more and then sat down in the chair the nurse had put by the bed. "It's going to be OK."

"Mr Giles?"

Giles turned to the doorway where a middle aged blonde woman had just entered. "Yes?"

"I'm Dr Jones. I'm going to be performing the ultrasound."

Giles nodded and gave the woman a brief smile. He looked back to Ren and then back to the doctor. "Have you ever done one quite like this?"

"I had a pregnant coma patient once," Dr Jones replied. She gave Giles an encouraging smile. "And mother and baby both ended up just fine." 

"Well that's good to hear." Giles smiled back in return and then slipped his other hand over Ren's as Dr Jones began to set up the ultrasound equipment. 

"Is this your first?" Dr Jones began to adjust the coverings over Ren.

"Yes," Giles replied. "Of my own, anyway," he added quietly. "There are others that are as close as."

Dr Jones smiled as she applied gel to Ren's abdomen. "Well, believe me when I say there's nothing like having your own. I've got three. Two boys and a girl." She picked up the transducer. "You ready?"

Giles nodded and clasped Ren's hand as Dr Jones put the transducer to Ren's abdomen. She ran it slowly over surface and Giles held his breath as the sonogram picture flickered into life.

"And there we go." Dr Jones smiled at Giles.

Giles let out his breath when he heard a crackled, but steady amplified heartbeat. He continued to stare at the black and white picture on the monitor as he grasped Ren's hand tighter. "Oh my God." He lifted Ren's hand to his lips and kissed her hand softly. "I can't believe it." Giles looked at Dr Jones anxiously. "Is everything alright?"

"From what I can tell," Dr Jones said softly. "Everything seems fine. Actually," she added, "Considering your fiancée's condition, I wasn't expecting such a strong heartbeat."

"She's pretty stubborn," Giles replied. He held Ren's hand up to his cheek as he looked back at her. "Doesn't give up without a fight." Giles looked back at the monitor. "Can I get a picture of that?" he asked suddenly. "I want her to see."

"Of course."

"Thank you." Giles swallowed hard and blinked back the tears he could feel pricking in the corners of his eyes. "Look what we did, darling." He kissed Ren's hand again. "Look what we did."

=====

tbc…


End file.
